1999 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru

"The 2000s are rather like the '92s, but with a bit more botrytis," says Martin Prieur. They began with a bit more sugar than did the '99s, and convey less of an impression of excessive yields (the estate did a more severe green harvest in 2000); after the malos, they have about the same acidity as the earlier vintage, he added. Prieur describes the '99s as "very austere," noting that more batonnage was carried out in '99 for this reason and because the wines were slower to open. "Vintage 2000, in contrast, has more charm, more fruit; it more Burgundian," he says simply. Several of the '99s had been bottled a month prior to my visit, after having remained on their lees until being assembled for the mise but a few were still awaiting bottling in early June. The Meursault Perrieres and the estate's three grand crus are aged in 100% new oak.

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.