2000 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru

Martin Prieur told me that 2000 is purer than 2001 because 2001 is "perhaps too ripe and the fruit was not quite as healthy and certainly not as uniform in quality. We also had a few of our Meursault vineyards touched by the hail that hit Volnay. Sugars ranged from 12.5 to 13.8%." I did not find the quality of 2001 to be substantially inferior to the Prieur 2000s across the board however though I would agree with him that chez Prieur though, '99 is better than 2000 and 2000 is slightly better than 2001. There is a glaring exception to this though as the quality of the 2001 Corton-Charlemagne is nothing short of stellar. I tasted the wines in March just before they were to be bottled; the Clos de Mazeray and the Feguine had just been bottled. The 2001s will be bottled earlier than either the 2000s or the �99s as the 2000s were not bottled until May and the �99s until July. W.J Deutsch Sons, White Plains, NY).

The grapes were healthier in both 1999 and 2000 than in 2001, admitted Martin Prieur, but a severe green harvest resulted in a smaller crop in the most recent vintage. In 2001 we had a bit of rot, with the result that the fruit was more fragile," he said. Although the pinot noir had no rot, in chardonnay we had everything from green to rotten grapes. We were pulling leaves until just four or five days before the harvest in order to open up the fruit to the sun and dry out the grapes." Grape sugars were higher in 2000 than in 2001, said Prieur, who noted that this was because the domain harvested especially late in 2000. Enologist Nadine Gublin described the aromas in 2001 as heavier due to the fragility of the grapes. At the time of my visit, she planned to rack a number of wines only prior to the bottling, and noted that the juice aging in new barrels was showing very little reduction.

"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.