1998 Nuits Saint-Georges Les Chênes Carteaux 1er Cru

Yields here ranged between 38 and 45 hectoliters per hectare in '99, quite reasonable in the context of this copious vintage. "We benefit from a good percentage of older vines, which are never enormously productive," noted Christian Gouges, who describes 1999 as "a very pinot year. The wines have a good acid/tannin balance, lovely phenolic material and very deep pinot color, and good ripeness at a moderate sugar level. They've been good since the start and will probably always taste good. Nature can give this combination of production and high quality only once every 30 years. The rains were perfectly timed, and really helped to ripen the skins," Gouges noted. "The grapes had thick skins, a real carapace," he added, noting that he was "tres cool" with the vinification, doing a short cold soak and keeping total cuvaison to about 14 days. These wines are now consistently among the standouts of Nuits-Saint-Georges, and are particularly successful in both '98 and '99. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)

Most of the 12 hectares of vines Jean-Marc Bouley works are through rental arrangements; he owns just three hectares of vines (in Pommard Pezerolles and Volnay Roncerets), most of which he replanted in the early '90s. Bouley describes the '99s as "very well balanced wines, structured but not too hard." The harvest was split in two by rain, he said, with the later-picked fruit showing some signs of dilution. Most of the '99s were racked prior to the 2000 harvest, some for the second time. Bouley was still recovering from an operation to repair herniated disks in his back, and still couldn't taste properly due to the pain relievers he was taking. He told me he hurt himself during the 2000 harvest, then managed to hobble through the vinification before undergoing surgery. (Represented by Russell Herman, Berkeley Heights, NJ; importers include V.O.S. Selections, Inc., New York, NJ)

Christian Gouges describes his '98s this way: "Very pinot noir, very agreeable, very expressive of terroir. Because the malos took a long time, they gave the wines gras and roundness." The August heat saved the vintage, Gouges adds, allowing the grapes to reach about 12% potential alcohol. And the thick-skinned grapes were able to resist rot during the pre-harvest rain. Gouges did "a minimum of vinification," avoiding overextraction, which he believes would have been especially dangerous in '98. The malolactic fermentations did not finish until the end of August, although Gouges racked the wines last spring (keeping the lees), explaining that he finds that he loses verve more if he racks the wines when the ambient temperature is warm. All of the '98s showed some signs of reduction in November; their fruit flavors should be further sweetened by the racking done just prior to bottling. Gouges pointed out that he has benefitted from the work of his father, who was widely criticized for his wines in the late '70s and early '80s but who had the courage and foresight to replant his vines. Gouges is now profiting from this work, and his wines have been among the finest, most complete examples of Nuits-Saint-Georges since the early '90s. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)

Laurent describes '97, '98 and '99 as "three good transitional vintages. I'm waiting for the next great one." Laurent bought 30% less wine in '97 than in '96, and 30% less again in '98. But his more successful wines from both years are among the stars of their respective vintages. In fact, Laurent says he didn't much like the '98 vintage at the start (and thus bought less of it), but notes that the wines have developed slowly and well, becoming classic and concentrated. He believes that harvest conditions favored the Cote de Beaune over the Cote de Nuits. Most of the growers from whom this negociant buys barrels of wine practice relatively gentle extraction during vinification. "Of course a vigneron can fail to get enough from his grapes, but basically he is more likely to screw up by cooking the aromas or by extracting excessively hard tannins," says Laurent. "Too many wines today are vinified to show specific aromas or dark colors for the critics, without any thought to how they will evolve over 10 or 20 years."