2005 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru

Henri Boillot describes his 2006s as "wines of great power, with a firm spinal column of acidity." Not surprisingly, Boillot was among the first to harvest on the Cote de Beaune: he told me he picked his Clos de la Mouchere on September 13! He carried out a "soft" elevage, with no stirring of the lees. My coverage of Boillot's domain cuvees is preliminary in nature, as none of these wines had completed their malolactic fermentations. In the negociant cellar, the wines were at all different stages of their malos, and some cuvees were not available for tasting. Boillot, who told me last year that 2005 was potentially great for chardonnay owing to the healthy grapes but tricky due to the sheer richness of material, pointed out that these wines changed completely after the fining. "There was so much pulp before that," he said. "The fining brought purity to the wines."

"A great year is a year when you don't have to eliminate bad grapes," said Henri Boillot."There have only been three years like that since I started in 1985:1990, 1999 and now 2005."Still, the added richness of the chardonnay in 2005 has posed its own set of problems.For starters, it was necessary to pick the chardonnay before the pinot noir, said Boillot.And it was not a year for stirring the lees."Batonnage has made some wines too heavy," he explained."When you stir the lees you risk losing the gas that keeps the wines fresh, and the wines can take on too much fat for their acid structure."The malolactic fermentations of the 2005s were often late in Boillot's negociant cellar (Boillot estimated that 30% of the barrels had not yet finished their secondary fermentations), but nearly every barrel I tasted at the beginning of June was finished with its malo.However, none of the domain wines aging at Boillot's home in Volnay had finished their malos, and so my notes on these cuvees must be taken as preliminary.

"A great year is a year when you don't have to eliminate bad grapes," said Henri Boillot."There have only been three years like that since I started in 1985:1990, 1999 and now 2005."Still, the added richness of the chardonnay in 2005 has posed its own set of problems.For starters, it was necessary to pick the chardonnay before the pinot noir, said Boillot.And it was not a year for stirring the lees."Batonnage has made some wines too heavy," he explained."When you stir the lees you risk losing the gas that keeps the wines fresh, and the wines can take on too much fat for their acid structure."The malolactic fermentations of the 2005s were often late in Boillot's negociant cellar (Boillot estimated that 30% of the barrels had not yet finished their secondary fermentations), but nearly every barrel I tasted at the beginning of June was finished with its malo.However, none of the domain wines aging at Boillot's home in Volnay had finished their malos, and so my notes on these cuvees must be taken as preliminary.