2008 Montrachet Grand Cru

Richard Fontaine compares his young 2008s to his 2002s. "They have a lot of acidity, similar to the 2007s, but they're richer wines," he told me. "In 2007 we picked a lot of fruit at 11.5% potential alcohol, but in 2008 it was typically 12%, and the grand crus were 13% or more. The last vines we harvested started to show signs of surmaturite, but we did enough treatments during the summer to ensure clean fruit." A few 2008s still had some residual sugar at the beginning of June, but then the alcoholic fermentations are always late here and are sometimes interrupted by the beginning of the malos. Fontaine uses only wild yeasts and stirs the lees twice a month until the end of the malos-or even later if the malos finish early. Incidentally, Fontaine made it clear that he does not find the 2008 whites to be fragile wines. On the contrary: he told me that samples taken out of barrel resist oxidation for a week. Fontaine compared his 2007s to his 2004s. "Two thousand four is very good now," he said, "so plan to drink the 2007s in about 2012." (Numerous importers, including Douglas Polaner Selections, Mt. Kisco, NY; Jeff Welburn Selections, Van Nuys, CA)