2005 Beaune Champs Pimonts 1er Cru

According to Martin Prieur, before August turned cold and gray this estate was planning to start their harvest with pinot noir on September 15. As it turned out, these dates were pushed back and the chardonnay ripened quickly, so the team harvested much of its chardonnay quickly between September 18 and 20 "in a very short window." The pinot ripened more slowly and Prieur says the fruit gained nearly two degrees in ripeness in the last five or six days. But in both 2006 and 2007, pinot vines on the Cote de Beaune required a lot of triage, with 20% to 30% of the fruit eliminated in both years. "There was much less rot in the Cote de Nuits-a function of the terroir and of better drainage," he added. Incidentally, enologist Nadine Gublin compared the young 2006 reds to the estate's 2001s and 1998s.

According to enologist Nadine Gublin, the chardonnay grapes in 2006 were not ripe as of September 10, and the estate waited. They ultimately began on the 20th and picked all the chardonnay in just three days, as the grapes turned golden in a hurry. Grape sugars went up quickly, said Gublin, with the fruit coming in at 13% to 14.5% potential alcohol, or about the same as the previous year. "There was a bit of noble rot," said Gublin, "but it was more a matter of surmaturite." Note that most of the 2006s were at the tail end of their malolactic fermentations, or had just finished. The Corton-Charlemagne, though, was barely halfway through its secondary fermentation. (Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY) Also recommended: Meursault Clos de Mazeray (86).

Martin Prieur describes the domain's young 2005s as combining "the density and fleshiness of 1990, the finesse and purity of fresh fruit of 2002, and the color intensity of 2003." The wines, he went on, are homogeneous in quality and are accurate expressions of their terroirs. "Almost the perfection of pinot noir," he summarized. The team did much less pigeage than usual because the grapes didn't need it, and the fermentation went easily. None of the wines had been racked in November. (Frederick Wildman Sons, New York, NY) Other wines tasted: Meursault Clos de Mazeray.

Martin Prieur considers 2004 one of the estate's "great white wine years, along with 1992."Vintage 2005, he went on, saw a perfect, easy harvest with no damaged grapes."The reds have great density, like the 1990s, but we were less impressed by the whites at the beginning, probably because we loved the 2004s.In fact, it's still easier to taste the 2004s now, so it's very early to make a judgment on the 2005s."Potential alcohols were in the very high 13.5% to 14.3% range in 2005, and the team has done much less stirring of the lees this year.I provide notes below on only those wines that had finished their malolactic fermentations when I visited the estate.A few samples, though, still had a bit of sugar to burn through.Incidentally, a few of the 2004s I tasted in early June were still in barrel.