2010 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru

"Two thousand eleven was my first vintage when I really didn't know when to pick," said consulting winemaker Nadine Gublin, referring to the precocious vegetative cycle."The growing season was really easy for the vines due to the dry spring."At the end of August and beginning of September (the domain picked from August 30 through September 12) "we wanted to wait but really couldn't."Gublin retained more of the lees than usual "to keep the wines in reduction."As is often the case in this cold cellar, the malos even in 2011 were very late and I will have to wait until next year to report on these wines from the bottle.The 2010s, which were similarly going through their secondary fermentations at the time of my visit last year, were also being bottled very late:four wines had just been finished several days before my visit (but note that the samples I tried had been taken from tank just before the mise), and the big boys were slated to be bottled in late June and early July."This vintage is a revelation," said Gublin."We had no idea about the wines before the malos finished last summer and early fall."Natural acidity levels were very healthy in 2010 and grape sugars were high."The low yields saved the vintage," added Gublin, noting that overall production was nearly 60% lower than that of the previous year.Gublin was bottling the wines with plenty of CO2, "otherwise they could appear heavy with all that dry extract.The last vintage with tiny grapes like this was 1995, but that year was hotter and there was more surmaturite."