2012 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru

As is often the case in this very cold cellar, the 2013 white wines had not finished their malolactic fermentations at the time of my late spring visit; in fact, this time they hadn't started. "The further we go in organic viticulture, the longer the malos take," observed owner Edouard Labruyere. Yields on the Cote de Beaune were virtually as low in 2013 as they were in 2012, he added: there will be no Volnay Clos des Santenots or Champans in '13, and the estate lost 100% of the fruit from its recently purchased Pommard Charmots vines. "But 2013 was really a healthy year for us except for the hailstorm," Labruyere summarized.My coverage of Domaine Jacques Prieur in this issue focuses on the 2012s, which I did not report on from barrel a year ago due to late malos. The estate's average yield for chardonnay was just 14 hectoliters per hectare, according to Labruyere. "We experienced everything in 2012: frost, rain, mildew, hail storms, grapes burned by the sun on July 21," he told me, "but the vintage was a pleasant surprise at the end due to the tiny yields. We were worried at the beginning about the balance of the wines but did no chaptalization or correction of acidity." The finished wines have healthy acidity in the 4.2 grams-per-liter range. Winemaker Nadine Gublin has not practiced batonnage since vintage 2008. Most of the 2012s were bottled just a couple weeks before my visit, but I tasted the last four wines from barrel or cuve. As Domaine Prieur bottles their wines with about 45 parts per million of free sulfur, some of the 2012s were quite tight, but their often high acidity was nicely counterpointed by residual sugar averaging two grams per liter. Also recommended: 2012 Beaune Greves (86).