1998 Echézeaux Grand Cru

"With the new cuverie I finally had the space to do my pigeage " Regis Forey told me in November, "but I probably left the '99s too long on their skins and overdid the extraction." Including the cold maceration carried out prior to the onset of fermentation, the wines spent 26 to 28 days on their skins. The '99s had not yet been racked at the time of my visit, and Forey was still stirring the lees monthly. He was still hoping that the tannins would harmonize, and was planning to bottle the '99s later than usual. A number of these wines, including village wines from Morey-Saint-Denis and Vosne-Romanee, were tough going in November.

Regis Forey, who has been steadily expanding his production in recent years both through purchases of vines and by means of rental arrangements (he made some Clos Vougeot and Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru in '99 en fermage), vinified his '98s and '99s in a new, more spacious facility on the other side of the Route Nationale. In '97, Forey picked early to protect acids, "but I waited for more ripeness in 1998, and I'm not sure this was a smart approach." Forey carried out a more extractive vinification in '98 (and in '99 too) than in '97, when the total cuvaison time was five or six days shorter, and less pigeage was done. The malolactic fermentations of the '98s finished just prior to the '99 harvest, and the wines had not yet been racked when I tasted them in November. Forey, who is much more careful today to protect his wines against oxidation during levage racked his '97s only prior to bottling, skipping the post-malo racking for the first time. He hoped to take the same approach with the '98s.