1997 Meursault Rougeots

Coche did almost no batonnage with his '97s, a set of wines he describes as fat and charming, but less minerally than usual. The malolactic fermentations were finished by the beginning of April, leaving wines with good average acidity, according to Coche. In contrast, Coche stirred the lees of his '96s "like I've never done before," and a few of the '96s did not finish their malos until December of 1997. In fact, I was only able to sample three finished '96s; the other wines were still on their finings in preparation for a July bottling and were impossible to taste. Those that I did see were among the potential superstars of the vintage. I rated these wines highly last year, but not highly enough.