1959 Nuits Saint-Georges Aux Murgers 1er Cru

“In the 2023 vintage, the winter was quite mild,” winemaker María Ignacia Navarro González, thankfully, more commonly known as just “Nacha” tells me. “At the beginning of spring, there was a bit of rain. Clos Vougeot and Richebourg were the first to flower in the first week of June, ending around June 6 or 7. The weather was particularly good during flowering. Then, there was a little rain at the end of the month. We were able to control the downy mildew. We were more worried about powdery, but it was OK in the end. Green harvest was our big work—three full weeks in July, leaving around eight, sometimes nine bunches per vine, depending on the size. You could have had almost double in some vines if you had not done a green harvest. August was very warm, especially when there was a heatwave on August 15, when we started doing the maturity control. We started noticing some shriveling in some vineyards. There was a little rain at the end of the month.”

She continues, “We started picking on September 5, and we thought we would do it at a leisurely place. But it was non-stop! We started with Corton-Rognet as usual, because the sugar was increasing fast. The sorting was especially important as there was a little acid rot. Yields were mostly 35 to 40 hl/ha, maximum 45 hl/ha. We adapted the vinification, conducting a four-day cold soak and, if I smelled a little activity of fermentation, I stopped the cold soak. During the cold soak we did one pumpover. A major factor was to finish the alcoholic fermentation without sugar, so we did this at a lower temperature compared to usual. We did less pigeage, three or a maximum of four per tank, then pressed before barreling down. In some appellations we did some bleeding, for example, Les Chaumes and Clos Vougeot. The malo was normal with Corton-Perrières, one plot in Les Chaumes and Marsannay that did not finish until July. All the reds are destemmed except some in the Corton-Perrières with approximately the same percentage of new oak. We did some racking in July. We had a lot of lees in the barrel, but we did not have a lot of reduction.”

Unfortunately, Jean-Nicolas Méo was ill when I visited the Domaine in Vosne-Romanée. Still, I was welcomed by his Chile-born oenologist with a beaming smile that could brighten the cloudiest day. “Just call me ‘Nacha,’” she says as we set ourselves up in her tiny office. “That’s what everyone calls me.”

“It was a much easier season than 2021 and 2023. Though it was dry and warm, we had a lot of rain during May and June before the harvest, whereas in 2023, it was close to the harvest. We lost 20% to 30% in Fixin and Marsannay due to the heaviest rain when there was some hail. We started the harvest on Monday, 29 August, with the Corton Clos Rognets and the Clos Vougeot. We finished nine days later, on September 6, with the Clos St. Philibert. The vinification was normal: a cold soak with one pump-over, two pump-overs during fermentation, and keeping the tank warm when we do the pigeage and remontage, if necessary, at around 1,000 density. We keep it around 30° to 32° Celsius for four or five days. We have some wines less than 13%, but most of them are 13% and 13.5%. The malos were quite fast for the reds, but slower for the Chardonnay that didn’t finish until July. We thought this might affect the wines, though, in the end, it didn’t. We taste every barrel of every appellation to choose the best cooperage and the level of toasting. Now, 100% of the staves are dried for three years with a medium toast. The first wines will be bottled in mid-December. The Bourgogne, Marsannay and Fixin are racked into tank for bottling.”

“We have to stop the tasting.”

Six words that any wine taster with an insanely hectic schedule shudders upon hearing. Yet that is exactly what Jean-Nicolas Méo has ordered. I understand; it’s a prudent move as the first cuvée taken from a pre-prepared bottle lacks freshness. Thankfully, fresh new samples are drawn from barrel. Phew!

“The 2021 vintage was a rather wet season; therefore, one of the issues was that the berries were engorged,” Méo begins, the first time that any winemaker has admitted this - logical when you consider the amount of rain. “The juice yield was high in this growing season, and even though the harvest was small, it’s almost a high-yield vintage in an odd way [if one considers that amount extracted from such tiny volumes]. How you dealt with extraction was one of the issues. The second issue was related to the evolution in barrel. It was a vintage with low acidity with quick malolactics that I don’t like. But when you have high pHs and malic acid, it accelerates the malo, and you need time between the alcoholic fermentation and malo to consolidate the tannins and colour. In vintages like 2019 and 2020, it matters less, but in 2021, it did matter. So we had to ensure the cellar was cool enough, and in some instances, added a bit of SO2.”

I rewind the growing season clock and ask about the harvest. “The harvest went well under good conditions, starting around 21 September,” he replies. “We thought there would be rain at the weekend, but there was only 5mm, even though 20mm had been forecasted. This dried out quickly, and we picked a little in the afternoon. I will bottle the 2021s a bit later. It’s a vintage that is nice and easygoing, and my recommendation is to drink them relatively early. Not that they can’t age, but it makes more sense to drink them early and keep 2019 and 2020 for longer.”

This is an intriguing portfolio, obviously truncated by the missing négociant cuvées that are decreasing in importance. Some leave me feeling as if the season’s travails got the better of the wine, for example, a slightly enervated Clos de Vougeot. Conversely, the Vosne-Romanée Cros Parantoux is stunning, their Aux Brûlées also with fire in its belly. It’s a little up and down, as one would expect in such a season, but I admire that these wines unhesitatingly translate the vagaries of the 2021 vintage.

As usual, Jean-Nicolas Méo was on hand to guide me through practically the entirety of his 2019s from the domaine and négoce side of their operation. Méo pointed out, they have complete viticulture and winemaking control on the cuvées. I commenced with a couple of whites. “The Chardonnay was extremely ripe in 2019,” Méo remarked. “I had to harvest the Clos St. Philibert during the red harvest instead of afterwards as I usually do. I was watching the Chardonnay all the time. It was only in the ten days days before picking that I realised how the ripeness was accelerating." We then broached the series of reds. “We harvested a week before we expected, commencing on 13 September. The extraction was quicker and better than the previous year and after the five-day cold soak the colour of the juice was already black. We had the acidity right at the beginning. The alcohol levels are around 14.0°, which is high, with a couple of cuvées at 14.5° and 14.6°. I would have preferred them to be a bit lower though some are around 13.2°. Until I tasted the 2019s after the 2020 harvest, I did not know how the wines would show but I find they express the terroir and they are less super-ripe than anticipated. I think it is superior to 2018 due to the 2019s greater structure and better acidity levels. They are not as light as they might be, but the aromatics are very attractive and I don’t feel they are too heavy or over-the-top. I would rate it a bit below 2015, but vintages like this are difficult to predict. It might evolve like 2009 and then we will have a great vintage. Or they could shut down.”

This was an impressive set of 2019s crowned by the usual suspects, Cros Parantoux, Richebourg and Premier Crus such as a show-stopping Aux Brûlées. Do not ignore one of a number of outstanding Clos Vougeot in 2019 and a noble Nuits Saint-Georges Les Murgers (I would draw your attention to a heavenly 1959 poured by Méo at a La Paulée almost a year earlier that I included in my 1959 article on Vinous.

Jean-Nicolas Méo guided me through his 2018s in his cellars in Vosne-Romanée. "We started the harvest on 29 August in Corton for one day, resuming on 1 September and we finished around seven days later," he explained. "It was an uncomplicated harvest that followed a natural order. The yields were good this year and nearly all the wines are under 14% alcohol. I can see them following the 2009s and tightening up after being open in their youth or they could be the 1985 that might seems to fade after a few years but actually reach a plateau where they remain upon for many years." With parcels scattered in such enviable premier and grand crus as theses, you inevitably find some absolute gems and the Cros-Parantoux and Richebourg one-two finish is a fabulous way to finish a tasting. What I really like here was Méo's outstanding Vosne-Romanée Aux Brûlées and some enticing offerings at entry-level, such as the négociant bottled Ladoix Blanc.

It is always a pleasure to meet up with Jean-Nicolas Méo. This year I was smitten by two bottles of his Richebourg, the 1986 and 1991, the former made by Henri Jayer and the latter by Méo himself. So I was eager to return to the domaine and see what the latest vintage has to offer. Anything in the league of those two wines?

“We have cuvées with a little reduction at the moment,” Méo advised down in his cellar. “We have not racked the wines. We adjusted the SO2 last week and that changes the wine slightly, making it tighter but often more precise. It was a good growing season, quite uneventful. There was a fear of frost at the end of April, but otherwise it was fine. Fruit set was good. Flowering was rapid and took place over a week, ensuring a sound and healthy crop. We had a little rain in July that caused some concern, but there was no rot, and the rain in August came too late to cause damage. We started the harvest on September 6 and finished around September 13. It was a big harvest, but quick. The weather forecast was not good. We stopped for one day when we thought there would be a big day of rain, but only 2–3mm fell instead of the 20mm predicted. The wines are around 12.5° to 13.0° after a small chaptalisation. It is a vintage that is a bit lighter than 2015 and 2016 but has acquired some density during the last summer. That also happened with 2016. The change caused by the malolactic fermentation was more noticeable in 2017 since the malic acid was lower in 2015 and 2016. We are also now using less SO2 before bottling.”

I was impressed by the 2017s at Méo-Camuzet and I find many of these wines equal to their 2015 and 2016 counterparts. There is great purity here, a palpable sense of terroir expression, and I agree that these wines seem to have gained density during their barrel maturation, prompting the question of how they will perform once in bottle. I particularly admire the Vosne-Romanée Aux Brûlées, which has the audacity to surpass the Cros Parantoux. Here one finds another very fine Clos de Vougeot, whilst the Corton Clos-Rognet, an intriguing wine with a slightly gamy finish, should not be ignored.

Jean-Nicolas Méo cut back on his production of négociant wine in 2016 because there was less fruit available “and the quality was debatable.” Still, he believes that the difference between frosted and non-frosted vines are not that obvious in 2016, as he had grape sugars of 13.5% or higher virtually across his many holdings and did not chaptalize. (He started harvesting on September 26, although he admitted to bringing in some of his most precocious vines, such as the Corton Rognets, two days earlier.) “We had a lot of sugar from the start, and we also had some sugar after the press,” he told me. “The wines were difficult to ferment, mostly due to their high alcohol, but the fermentation were not really stuck. When we de-vatted and pressed, we saw that the alcohol levels were slightly higher than at the outset.”

Méo did a relatively soft vinification in 2016, with some vats done without sulfur additions. Although he destemmed all of his fruit, for a number of wines he added back a portion of the stems. Méo, who is backing away slightly from his use of new oak for some of his top wines, told me he was surprised to find that the ‘16s have slightly higher pHs than his ‘15s (typically 3.5 to 3.6 in ’16 but mostly 3.4 to 3.5 the previous year). The malos here occurred at their normal time—between March and June—and the wines, with one exception, were still in barrel, unracked, at the time of my November visit. Méo noted that the ‘16s had become a bit more serious—more dense and structured—since the summer without losing their charm. As my father used to say, I was "visibly impressed" by this set of wines, and Méo's top cuvées should be among the elite bottles of the vintage.

The handful of 2015s I tasted here were also stunning. Méo told me that it’s his favorite vintage since 1999: “complete wines with great balance.” But this superb producer, normally very generous about opening bottles, declined to participate in my 1999 survey, as he was nervous about showing it in his cellar.

Jean-Nicolas Méo started harvesting his Pinot Noir on September 3, then stopped for a couple of days on the 6th and 7th, ultimately finishing on September 11. He now wishes he had picked one or two days earlier. “We had a big debate about picking times,” he explained. “The harvest in Vosne-Romanée was very spread out over a three-week period. Some people waited because they thought the skins were not ripe, which was true in the first week of September. But some fruit got overripe quickly during the second week.”

Still, Méo told me that he can't find a fault in the 2015 vintage. “The wines are dense, ripe, fresh and fruity, with great balance and generosity, and they show the terroir.” He described 2015 as “a blend of 2009 and 2005: higher in acidity than 2009 and slightly riper than 2005. It’s an especially strong vintage for village wines; the others will need time. The big wines of the vintage may need refining with age but they’re not overly closed now,” he added. Like a number of his colleagues, Méo believes that the '15s "won't necessarily go through a long closed period.”

Méo, who has cut back on both punchdowns and pumpovers in recent years, is also minimizing racking; in fact, although the malos finished in July, he had only racked a few wines as of mid-November. The samples Méo prepared were approximations of the final blends, which feature 20% to 25% new oak for the village wines and 33% for the premier crus.

"The 2014 growing season was bizarre in the sense that there were a lot of ups and downs," said Jean-Nicolas Méo in November."We had a rainy August until the 25th, and then good weather until September 19. The grape sugars accumulated very slowly. In fact, during the last week, nothing much happened to the sugars, perhaps due to vineyard stress from such a changeable year." It was a bit similar to Oregon in 2015, added Méo, who is involved in a new project there.

Méo began harvesting on September 12, "slightly earlier than we had originally planned," owing in part to the growing incidence of Drosophila Suzukii. (The team did two passes through the vines to drop fruit that was affected by acid rot. ) Although he had also carried out some green harvesting, he still brought in a sizable crop: about 20% higher than normal, whereas the previous four vintage were 5% to 25% lower than average."I wasn't wild with the 2014s at the start but today I'm very pleased with the wines," he summarized."It's an easygoing vintage but some wines are more serious than you would think." Incidentally, a few of Méo's négociant bottlings are likely to include some estate fruit in 2014.

Jean-Nicolas Méo started harvesting his estate vines on October 2 and was surprised to find excellent phenolic ripeness even though grape sugars were in the 11.5% to 12% range. It was necessary to eliminate a significant quantity of rotten berries but there were relatively few pink or green ones, he told me. None of the 2013s here will be bottled with as much as 13% alcohol, with the possible exception of the always-ripe Corton Clos Rognet. Extraction was easy with the 2013s, noted Méo, "as the green elements stayed behind." Some barrels were still finishing their malolactic fermentations at the beginning of November but most malos ended between mid-summer and October.

I was deeply impressed with the wines I tasted at Méo-Camuzet this year. In particular, these are some of the most intense, mineral-driven 2012s I came across. According to winemaker Peer Reiss malos were very long and in some cases did not finish until November 2013, which is very late, even by the standards of a vintage in which malos were slow to finish in many cellars. While these 2012s are gorgeous across the board, I don't expect too many of the domaine bottlings to be ready to drink anytime soon.

The crop level in 2012 was small but not catastrophic, said Jean-Nicolas Meo."Whatever we had at the flowering we didn't lose afterwards.There was no loss from mildew or oidium and due to the nice September weather there was no botrytis, thanks also to the small berries and loose clusters.There was some rain during the harvest [Meo started picking his Corton on September 19, and the Cote de Nuits on the 21st] but the grapes seemed immune."There was a wide range of pHs after the malos, which Meo attributed to the precipitation of potassium, and the young 2012s struck me as rather charming wines that would be approachable early.With a few notable exceptions Meo's domain wines show the delicate, precise, earlier-picked side of 2012.He chaptalized his wines about a half-degree except where potential alcohol levels had reached a natural 13%.The 2012s had all been racked by the time of my visit, the crus just prior to the 2013 harvest. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, www.kermitlynch.com; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs; importers include Frederick Wildman & Sons, www.frederickwildman.com)

Jean-Nicolas Méo's 2011s were quite awkward from barrel. Fortunately, I was able to taste a few finished wines from bottle. According to Méo, sugars were the lowest since 1994. All of the wines were lightly chaptalized, which was common in this vintage. At first, I thought 2011 would be a vintage of easygoing wines, but some of the wines I tasted from bottle suggest otherwise, although I stress I only tasted a selection of 2011s and not the entire range.

Jean-Nicolas Meo describes 2011 as "much better than 2007, with a bit more of everything." He began harvesting on September 2 with grape sugars in the 11.5% to 12% range, then chaptalized less than one degree "in increments to prolong the extraction," bringing the wines up to about 12.5%. "It's still a light vintage in terms of alcohol," he told me. Meo did a pre-selection in the vineyard to nip the spread of rot in the bud, then eliminated another 10% or so of the grapes in the winery. Most of the wines had been racked once at the time of my visit, and Meo told me that he had added a bit too much sulfur, which made some of the wines tricky to taste. The 2011s, he added, are now more structured than they appeared to be last winter, and the vintage is dominated by red fruits. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, www.kermitlynch.com; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs; importers include Frederick Wildman & Sons, www.frederickwildman.com and Winebow, www.winebow.com)

Jean-Nicolas Méo was away on the day of my visit, so I tasted with assistant winemaker Peer Reiss. The harvest started on September 22 and took about ten days to complete. Overall, I am a big fan of the 2010s here. Although I did not get a chance to taste the 2009s from bottle, my notes suggest 2010 will turn out to be the more interesting vintage. The Méo-Camuzet négociantwines are reviewed separately.

Due to the late malos, which ended here between June and August, the 2010s remained tight for a long time, noted Jean-Nicolas Meo. "They previously lacked generosity and charm, and it's only in the last three or four weeks that the wines are starting to reveal themselves," he added. In fact, he went on, the fruit in 2010 was picked with lower acidity and higher sugars than in 2008, and the very small grapes have produced wines with excellent balance. In the course of our tasting of his negociant and domain wines, Meo described 2010 as "a 50/50 blend of 2005 and 2008." (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines et Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, importers include Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Winebow, Somerville, MA)

Jean-Nicolas Méo began harvesting on September 12. He did 17-18 days of cuvaison and did one racking before the wines were prepared for bottling. I was not able to taste a handful of wines that were racked just before my visit, including the Cros Parantoux. Méo is among the growers who believe The 2009s will age well on their depth of fruit.

I tasted in November with assistant enologist Coralie Allexant, then received an update from Jean-Nicolas Meo on the progress of the 2009s shortly before going to press with this issue. "Obviously 2009 was a very ripe year, with a very fine month of August," Meo told me. "I think the sugars shot up at the very end, just before the harvest. We probably could have picked a little earlier, but not much, perhaps two days." Following the fermentations, acidity levels are low and pHs on the high side, but the slow evolution of the wines in barrel has helped reinforce their structures, Meo added. He told me that the wines tasted especially pleasant when I visited in November but since then they have acquired "more seriousness, not to say austerity." Still, he considers them to be "very fat and pleasant wines with a good capacity to age," closer in character to 1999 than to 2005, which he considers to be almost almost opposite in style. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Winebow, Somerville, MA) Also recommended: 2009 Marsannay (85-87).

x000D Jean-Nicolas Meo believes that the 2008s have a classic structure and should age very well, and he pointed out that even though the acids remained high after the malos and the pHs lower than usual, the wines taste less acidic than the analysis suggests. Acids and pHs were comparable at harvest time to those of vintage 1996, he added, but 2008 was a bit higher in sugar and the crop level was lower, although strict sorting was needed to eliminate rotten and underripe grapes. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Boston Wine Company, Somerville, MA)

According to Jean-Nicolas Meo, "the 2007s were clean, fruity and forward from the beginning. They'll be pretty, charming wines." The pHs were a bit higher than average and the malos mostly finished quite early here. Meo believes that the summer rains had the effect of "dissolving the tartaric acidity and bringing up the level of potassium." Meo compared the new set of wines to the 2000s and 1992s but believes that the '07s have put on weight in recent months. I found them quite shy at the beginning of November, perhaps due to SO2 temporarily blocking their texture and flesh. "Our enologist advised us to use more sulfur dioxide due to his fear of brett owing to the high pHs," Meo explained. "This hardened the wines at the beginning-gave them a lean quality-but they're getting better as they absorb the sulfur." In contrast, Meo went on, "the '06s are well-balanced but more structured wines. They have more size but they're also a bit harsh today." Based on the bottlings I tasted, they have turned out splendidly. Meo's negociant wines had been racked for the second time a couple weeks before my visit, but the estate wines had only been racked once, just before the 2008 harvest. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Boston Wine Company, Somerville, MA)

Jean-Nicolas Meo has a highly successful crop of 2006s in the works, but his considered description of the vintage indicates some ambivalence. "It's a very balanced vintage, with similar analyses to 2005," he began. "Actually, we started with a bit more sugar in 2006 due to low crop levels, and then harvested over a long period, stopping for a while to pick some very ripe chardonnay. But the pinots are a little less concentrated than the 2005s and therefore they were more aggressive at the beginning. After the malos, we got somewhat higher pHs, which have compensated for the lower density of the wines and made them more approachable. Still, the density and concentration of material are not at the level of great years like 2005 and 2002. But 2006 has all the elements to age well." I found the 2006s to be quite ripe, even chocolatey, in November; they may have been flattened out a bit by having been recently racked. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Boston Wine Company, Somerville, MA)

"Two thousand five is a great vintage, no question about it," said Jean-Nicolas Meo. "There's a silkiness to the wines that might not be obvious today. And they're also a bit more acidic than I expected a year ago, which will push back their period of optimum drinkability. The vintage will evolve very slowly but I don't expect the wines ever to close up completely." Meo went on: "We had some rain during the week of September 5, and another 20 millimeters early the following week. The vineyards immediately took on water, and we lost 0.5 degrees of potential alcohol in one week. The good weather returned on September 16 or 17 and we started picking on the 16th. But we quickly stopped for four days because we figured out that the grapes needed more ripeness. And of course the weather forecast at that point was very favorable." Meo ultimately produced his smallest crop level to date with the exception of 2003, due in large part to losses from hail in May: 17 hl/ha for Brulees and Cros Parantoux, 21 for Richebourg and 25 for Clos Vougeot. Incidentally, Meo told me he did not experiment with including some stems in the vinification for fear of getting wines with "too much structure." (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Boston Wine Company, Somerville, MA)

Jean-Nicolas Meo describes 2004 as "a nice, well-balanced vintage saved by high grape sugars. The main drawback is lack of concentration. There wasn't enough stuffing in the grapes for the wines to achieve greatness. The vintage is more red fruit than black, like 2000. "Meo, who did up to three separate green harvests in his various parcels, was one of a few growers to tell me he did a saignee in some of his cuvees to obtain more concentrated musts. Meo considers the 2004s to be riper and softer than the 2001s. "We had a different balance in 2001," he explained. "The higher acidity in '01 helped us extract more color and get more profound wines, with deeper fruit, but at lower levels of alcohol. "My tasting began with a few of Meo's negociant offerings. (Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Boston Wine Company, Somerville, MA)

Jean-Nicolas Meo started his 2003 harvest on August 28, eliminating the raisined grapes, which he said represented a very small percentage of the crop.He was one of several proprietors who told me that their wines seemed to get fresher with the malolactic fermentations, offering the explanation that there was more precipitation of potassium than of tartaric acidity.The malos here finished between January and July of 2004, and the wines were still on their lees, unracked, when I tasted them in November.Incidentally, Meo, who uses about 20% to 25% Troncais oak, told me he's not wild for the way these barrels are combining with the 2003s:he feels this oak is exaggerating the already big structure of the wines and accentuating their tendency toward heaviness. I was especially impressed by Meo's top three cuvees (Vosne-Romanee Aux Brulees, Vosne-Romanee Cros Parantoux and Richebourg), which largely avoid the roasted side of the vintage."Wines from our cooler sites should evolve gracefully," said Meo."With the others, there's certainly an unknown element.But if the evolution of the wines in barrel is an indication, they should age well.Their evolution so far has been much less brutal and quick than we feared at the beginning." I started with a look at Meo's negociant offerings, of which my favorites were an aromatically pure and minerally Nuits-Saint-Georges Perrieres and a highly concentrated, high-alcohol Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras, which boasted exotic berry liqueur and chocolate flavors without coming across as roasted.(Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Boston Wine Company, Somerville, MA)

I tasted these wines in November with assistant winemaker Christian Faurois.Just before going to press with my notes, I asked Jean-Nicolas Meo for his up-to-the-minute thoughts on the 2002s.He told me that last fall he found a number of the 2002s a littler harder and more closed than he would have expected, but hoped that the wines would open after the racking and prior to the bottling. After all, 2002 was a very ripe vintage and I thought the wines would be a bit more approachable. This is a vintage I inevitably compare to 1999: in terms of analysis, the balance was roughly the same. But the '99s appeared immediately charming, and you almost did not feel the acidity that was present in the wines and that ensures ageworthiness. With 2002, you felt this acidity from the beginning; aromatically, the wines were less open at the start than the '99s. In November, the 2002s were different every day, and sometimes quite closed.They are now very fragrant and open but remain a bit tighter than the '99s, which is seen by some as a positive sign: they could be longer-lived."

Jean-Nicolas Meo describes 2001 as "a relatively structured vintage compared to 2000, but not overly so." The grapes were riper in 2000 but easier to extract in 2001, possibly due to the higher levels of malic acidity in the latter year, he added. As to ripeness of the skins themselves, it's hard to choose between the two vintages." Meo told me he upped his normal quantities of sulfur when he bottled the 2000s, but expects to go light on the SO2 for the 2001s.

Jean-Nicolas Meo, who typically racks his new wines prior to the following harvest, had not yet racked his 2000s in November. "It a more fragile vintage, and the wines are not very reduced," he told me, "so why upset them?" The fruit in 2000 was as ripe as that of '99, and Meo sorted strictly to eliminate underripe and rotten grapes. In fact, Meo said he did less chaptalization in 2000 than in any previous vintage. The biggest difference between 2000 and 1999, he went on, is the lower acidity in the later year: the typical pH is 3.7 in '00, vs. 3.5 in '99. Still, unlike in '97, the malolactic fermentations went slowly, giving the 2000s good protection from oxidation in barrel. Meo offered the opinion that his 2000s might evolve like his highly successful '89s.

Jean-Nicolas Meo was one of a relative handful of growers to characterize 1999 as a great vintage. He carried out two green harvests, the first one in July, earlier than usual. "It too late to wait until August to drop crop," said Meo. "The less ripe vines wouldn't have time to catch up. But with the earlier green harvest, we were able to get good even ripening." Sugars were high (typically in the 13% range, which Meo said was unprecedented in his village parcels), and barely three or four percent of the grapes had to be eliminated, he added. The domain-wide average production was a very reasonable 40 hectoliters per hectare, but just under 35 for Richebourg and Vosne-Romanee Brulees.

Jean-Nicolas Meo describes 1998 as a balanced vintage; his biggest worry in November was that some of the wines were in a very reduced state and stubbornly backward and inexpressive-possibly due in part to the sulfur treatments that were used to fight powdery mildew. Grape sugars were high, but the fruit required careful sorting due to the rain. Acid levels aren't much above those of '97, but because there was little malic acidity, the acid component remained stable. "The '98s," Meo notes, "taste firmer now than we thought they would at harvest time. Actually, our first impression of the vintage was one of fleshiness, not tannins, but now the wines are in a phase. We may have tried to extract too much." The '98s will be racked again and some wines may be fined for the bottling. The important question with the '98s, says Meo, is "Will we succeed in opening the wines?" He adds that the '98s do not have the same tannic structure as '95 or '88, but they are denser wines than the '97s.

Jean-Nicolas Meo describes his '97s as a quickly maturing group of wines that nonetheless avoided "the 1992 syndrome" of quick malolactic fermentations and pale, sediment filled wines. Although yields in '97 were almost as high as those in the copious '92 harvest, grape sugars were higher. Meo, who switched to earlier bottling with his '96s, expected to bottle the '97s in February and March, but had not yet racked these wines following the malos, which ended last spring. "With fragile vintages, if you rush them to bottle, you may lose part of their glycerol, their substance," he notes. Meo move to earlier bottling resulted from a trip he made to America in February of '97. In advance of his tour, he sent ahead samples of '95s that he had bottled in December of '96. When he tasted these special early bottlings two months later he was thrilled with the way they showed.

Jean-Nicolas Meo describes '96 as "between '90 and '93 in style." The grape sugars were in the high 12.5% range for the crus, like '90, but the '90s were riper and sweeter, Meo explains. And the color of '96 is darker than '95 and almost as dark as '93, a vintage he describes as having "maximum color." The '96 vintage is "at least very good; it will be approachable soon, but should have very good aging potential." Meo '95s, quite rich in extract thanks in part to extremely low yields, were closing down following bottling in early spring, but their high quality was apparent in November. I may have slightly underrated these wines a year ago from barrel.