2005 Meursault Les Boucheres

Jean-Marc Roulot compares his young 2006s to the supple 2000s in style, but believes that the grapes were healthier in the earlier vintage. "Two thousand six is not quite as good as either 2005 or 2004," said Roulot. "The grapes were picked before rot spread, and no special sorting was necessary; it was more a matter of having browner grapes than usual." Roulot started harvesting in Meursault Boucheres four days before the ban de vendange, and also brought in his Poruzots early. Like a few of his colleagues on the Cote de Beaune, Roulot still doesn't quite know what to think about 2005. "I don't think I picked the grapes too late, but I just don't understand the wines yet," he told me. Roulot admitted that he finds the 2005s a bit "anonymous" today and wonders whether they will reward aging. Still, he said, acidity levels in 2005 were high across the board. The '05s were bottled between January and March of 2007.

According to Jean-Marc Roulot, the chardonnay grapes in 2005 resembled those of 1999 and 1995 "in the look of the grapes, in concentration and in potential alcohol; but they have better acidity and were picked in great conditions."Coulure and millerandage during the flowering held yields to the 30 to 40 hectoliters-per-hectare range.The wines are rich and solid but have plenty of energy, he went on.Roulot was an early harvester in 2005, and stirred his lees only until the malos started in November or December.The malos finished on the early side, in February and March, and the wines were then sulfited.Like a number of his colleagues, Roulot prefers the normally more minerally sites in 2005, as he believes they produced wines with greater vivacity.Incidentally, Roulot still considers '96 to be his greatest vintage, followed by 2002 and then 2004.