1997 Gevrey-Chambertin Poissenot 1er Cru

By chilling the grapes to 10 degrees C, Vincent Geantet was able to carry out his normal cold maceration for more than a week following the 1997 harvest, doing two pigeages per day through this period. The fermentation then occurred in about six days at a temperature reaching as high as 36 degrees with three or four pigeages during these days. Afterwards, as he usually does, Geantet immediately took the wines off their skins. The result of this approach is a set of deeply colored, silky, fruit-driven wines free of hard tannins. Perhaps due to the fact that the '97s had been bottled just a week before my November visit, I found a rustic aspect to a number of these wines, with the ripeness and low acidity of the vintage more apparent than specific vineyard character. But they are impressively rich. Geantet '96s, on the other hand, are as impressive and aromatically complex a set of wines as I've tasted from this grower.