2006 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

This domain picked a very small crop beginning on August 30, due in equal parts to having eliminated a lot of fruit just before the harvest and to carrying out a severe selection in the vines. There was more rot on the Cote de Beaune than on the Cote de Nuits, according to Martin Prieur. Grape sugars were in the low 12s, and most of the wines were chaptalized a half-degree. "In principal, the 2006s have more material, and there was less rain," noted enologist Nadine Gublin, "but on the whole, the pinot noir may have been more consistently ripe in 2007 due to the precocity of the season." (Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY) Also recommended: Meursault Clos de Mazeray (86).

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.