2008 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru

As you might have guessed, Henri Boillot picked very early in 2009, starting with chardonnay on September 4 and then attacking his pinots a week later. At the time of my early June visit, the malos were finished in his negociant cellar across the Route Nationale but not at his house, where he makes his domain wines. Boillot describes 2009 as a year with a lot of different styles, depending to a great degree on picking dates. "Those who harvested early had the chance to make wines with strong acid backbone," he told me. "For me the 2009s are like the 2006s but less ripe and less exotic." Boillot generally brought in his fruit with 12.5% to 12.8% potential alcohol and chaptalized lightly to prolong the fermentations. Incidentally, Boillot already rates the 2009 reds ahead of the '05s, which is high praise indeed. As to the whites, he believes his 2009s have good structure and acid spine. "They are charming wines but they also have plenty of aging potential," he explained. Many of the wines finished quite dry, in a classic sense.

Henri Boillot, who started harvesting chardonnay on September 28 in 2008 and began the pinot at the beginning of October, told me that there's not much of a distinction between 2008 and 2007 chardonnay in terms of the technical numbers. "The only difference is that some noble rot in 2008 gave the wines more gras and less aggressive acidity," he said. "Or, rather, the acidity is masked by the wine's fat in the '08s, while the 2007s are pure but more taut." Boillot told me he did not stir the lees in either 2008 or 2007, but noted that despite doing more debourbage than previously he still brings nearly 20 liters of lees into his 350-liter barrels. He considers the 2007 whites "almost my best year yet" and he offered the opinion that his 2007 reds are every bit as good as his 2005s. As at other addresses, I offer notes below on only the 2008s that had finished their malolactic fermentations-or nearly finished. Most of Boillot's domain wines, in the colder cellar at his house, were just starting their malos at the end of May, so my only note is for the stunning Clos de la Mouchere.