1998 Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 1er Cru

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.