2007 Echézeaux Grand Cru

"Two thousand eight brought us the very classic pinot of Burgundy," said Regis Forey. "The wines have structure and a point of acidity, and offer a lot of potential for aging. They're a bit taut, like the 2002s, and in a minerally style, and they're more classic than the 2007s. And they're less exuberant than 2006 or 2003." Forey carried out a green harvest, and pulled the leaves quite early on the north side of the vines. He started harvesting on September 23 and told me he eliminated about 5% underripe grapes but had very little rot. He chaptalized a few of his cuvees by about a half degree, and punched down the cap only during the first half of the fermentation, relying more on remontage and delestage in order not to dry out the wines. Like a growing number of his colleagues he heated his wines to 40oC for the last night of the fermentation "to get more fat and roundness," then left the wines on their skins for another five to seven days (the total cuvaison time was a relatively long six weeks, beginning with four or five days of cold soak). Forey told me he stirred the lees of most of his wines a total of five times, but only until the malolactic fermentations finished in July. The wines I tasted were still in barrel, unracked, and had not been sulfured since just after the malos.

"The 2007 vintage is about fruit and elegance," said Regis Forey, who told me he picked very late and did almost no chaptalization. "It would have been a shame to use techniques that risked losing the fruit." Still, Forey admitted to having stirred the lees in most of his barrels three or four times after the malolactic fermentations, which finished early here, in December or January. Forey's 2006s are a bit less stuffed than his '05s, but there's not a big difference between the two vintages in terms of structure. These wines got considerably more lees stirring than the '07s, because Forey felt they needed more fat. They will require longer aging than the '07s.