1997 Beaune Clos de la Feguine Blanc

This domain did not start harvesting its pinot noir until eight days after the official start of the vintage on the Cote de Beaune in '98, with the result that they brought in fruit with excellent potential alcohol and generally very ripe tannins. "We only chaptalized a few of the Cote de Nuits wines," said enologist Nadine Gublin, "but none of the Cote de Beaunes, because the grape sugars ranged from 12.8% to 13.5%." Several of the top '98s showed outstanding potential in November. The extremely ripe '97 reds, none of which were chaptalized but most of which required acid adjustment in the fermenter, are a distinctly mixed bag, with several cuvees a bit flaccid for my taste.

The '98 reds are coming out well, says enologist Nadine Gublin, but the whites are developing slowly. They still need to be enriched by batonnage she adds, and in any event are at widely varying stages of their secondary fermentations. Only the Chevalier-Montrachet and the Corton-Charlemagne were chaptalized; the rest of the '98s are between 12.8% and 13.2% alcohol, natural. The grapes in '98 were healthy enough, says Martin Prieur, and had better acidity than, for example, the '94s, which were a bit hollow by comparison. "The problem with the rains of '98 was dilution more than rot," noted Prieur. Only a few of the '98s were tastable at the end of May. Long lees work following the '97 harvest, including substantial batonnage following the end of the malolactic fermentations, led to wines with more freshness in the mouth, as well as length. Sugar levels were very high: between 13% and 14.5%.

The biggest problem with 1997 was that much of the chardonnay was harvested when the ambient temperatures were high, said Martin Prieur, adding that this domain waited until a week after the ban de vendange to pick chardonnay grapes. "With reds it was more important to pick early, to retain freshness." Still, Prieur adds, the '97 whites are much fresher than the '94s: they have been much more resistant to oxidation in barrel and seem far less fragile. They were also a bit tricky to taste, as a few cuvees still had four or five grams of unfermented sugar. The Prieur '96s, some of which had been bottled less than two months prior to my visit, are altogether more structured, drier wines (they typically finished with barely one gram per liter residual sugar, vs. 1.5 to 2 for those '97s that have completed their primary fermentations). They will require a good seven or eight years of bottle aging.