1998 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru

There was no blockage of grape maturity during the heat of August '99, thanks to healthy leaves that nourished the fruit, enologist Nadine Gublin told me at the end of June. Grape sugars were in the healthy 12.5%-13.5% range, thus avoiding the excesses of '98, and those wines closer to 12.5% were chaptalized by 0.5% to 0.8%. Most of the estate chardonnay was brought in on the early side, while some of the pinot noir was picked after mid-harvest rains. (Domaine Prieur used a vibrating table to dry the pinot grapes, and to eliminate less-than-ideal berries.) Acidity levels of the chardonnay were average, but because much of the acidity was of the tartaric persuasion, the wines should turn out fresh and firm. The domain was looking forward to bottling the '99s with a gentler gravity filtration system. A few of the wines still had some unfermented sugar at the end of June, but the malos were just about finished. The top Prieur '98s showed extremely well on my recent visit.

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%.