2007 Riesling

Imagine my surprise when Francois Burn told me on September 20 that he didn't expect to start harvesting in 2008 until October 13, despite the fact that most other producers on my tour were expecting to start picking their serious stuff within a week to ten days. "Here, riesling on calcaire is not ripe at 12%, and right now we have more like 10%; the acidity is still too hard," Burn explained. "We need at least 13%. On granite, it's another matter." Burn did not start picking in 2007 until October 8, which meant that much of his fruit benefited from a season lasting between 115 and 120 days, or more. "It was almost an ideal vintage," he told me. "The wines show great fruit, integrated sweetness, and unusual freshness and energy on the finish." Two thousand six, on the other hand, was a difficult harvest here: Burn did not offer his generic wines, and his only gewurztraminer was an SGN. Incidentally, Burn is not big on matching wines with food. "There are too many problems with pairings. We should adapt the dish to fit the wine," he said. Burn leaves his wines on their fine lees in mostly stainless steel tanks for nearly a year before filtering them for the first time in August. At that point, some of the wines go back for further aging into foudres. He bottles with very low levels of free sulfur. (A Peter Vezan Selection, imported by Dionysos Imports, Lorton, VA) Also recommended: 2007 Sylvaner (85-86).