2008 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

CEO/advisor Bernard Hervet was in no hurry to pick chardonnay in 2009, harvesting late and ripe: only his Meursault villages, Meursault Charmes and Batard-Montrachet were picked before September 12, with the bulk of the chardonnay coming in over the next four or five days. "Quantities were generous, as in 1999 and 1990, and the fruit was beautiful," he told me, adding that barely 1% of the grapes had to be eliminated on the sorting table. "I was more concerned about picking pinot noir early." He quoted Rolande Gadille, who wrote in the '60s on the subject of Burgundy's soils and vintages, that a great vintage "is a year where everything worked well: the flowering, the summer, the harvest." You need a great May and a great August to make a great vintage, Hervet added, including some 30oC days in May. In addition to making outstanding wines in Chablis, Faiveley is now a major player in Cote de Beaune white, following its acquisition of Domaine Monnot (brothers Marc and Alexandre Bachelet will continue to get a portion of this fruit under a long-term contract), and the signing of a 12-year agreement to get fruit from Domaine Matrot-Wittersheim (a property in Meursault owned by Thierry Matrot's aunt and her daughter).