2009 Meursault Les Genevrières 1er Cru

Henri Boillot began harvesting on September 3rd, which he though was critical in maintaining as much freshness as possible. All of the wines were aged in 350-liter light-toast Francois Freres barrels, with no bâtonnage. These are some of the most viscerally thrilling, textured 2009s readers will come across. Boillot's ever-growing collection of negociant wines is reviewed separately. I tasted with Boillot at his Volnay facility, and was thus able to only tasted a handful of 2010s, all Domaine (rather than Maison) wines. The 2010s I did taste were exciting and hugely promising.

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.