2007 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru

Consulting winemaker Nadine Gublin underscored what a number of her colleagues elsewhere on the Cote de Beaune told me at the end of May: "In 2007 it was important to be patient, both in terms of harvest dates and aging the wines in barrel. The wines were severe at the beginning, and they needed a long time on the lees to get flavor and aromatic character." In 2008, Domaine Prieur started picking on September 28, beginning with pinot noir and then bringing in the chardonnay virtually in two days. "There was a lot of noble rot and the sugars were rising quickly," noted Gublin. "The fruit wasn't ripe on September 23, but sugars were very high by October 1, and in some cases too high." Only the Corton-Charlemagne had finished its malolactic fermentation at the time of my visit, so I will wait to taste the 2008s in finished form next year. However, my early look at the new collection suggests that the Meursault Charmes and Perrieres are particularly strong, and that the Beaune Champs-Pimont will be very successful too. Incidentally, Gublin credits chef de culture Daniel Gaudifroy for facilitating the estate's transition to organic viticulture (the estate's white wines have been organic since 2000), which she believes has improved the wines. "Our Chevalier-Montrachet used to be too facile and exotic," she told me, "but especially since 2002 it shows more precision and finesse."

This estate picked pinot very early, beginning on September 4, and then waited until September 10 to start harvesting chardonnay (the Corton-Charlemagne was brought in on September 15, and the Chevalier-Montrachet on the 17th). No chaptalization was done, but acidity levels were quite firm, said Martin Prieur, and the wines have real bite. When I asked enologist Nadine Gublin to compare the '07s to the estate's '04, she responded that the '07s will show more minerality and won't have the exotic quality of some of the '04s, which she said featured "some surmaturite, and a greater range of ripeness."