2007 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

Jean-Marc Boillot believes that surmaturite is an important factor in the premature oxidation of white Burgundies, and that's why it makes no sense to him to pull leaves late in the summer and expose the grapes to even more sun. He prefers to pick early, to press gently and to start with clear juice, as he believes that the purity and precision of aromas "at all stages" is the key to keeping the wines fresh. He seeks to avoid any aromatic deviation and believes that "yeasts should only have the grape sugars to work with." In 2008, Boillot did not do a lot of triage but carried out "a big debourbage" and began with very little lees in the barrels. He carried out a lot of batonnage, however, and was still stirring the lees at the end of May, despite the fact that the malos had finished by early March and the wines had been sulfited. Boillot does not believe that batonnage oxidizes the wine because, he says, the lees are reductive and absorb oxygen. He describes 2008 as more generous than 2007 but with similar acidity. Grape sugars were around 13% and almost no chaptalization was necessary. But I got the sense that he believes the 2007s offer greater precision of terroir. I would not be surprised if they aged longer.

Jean-Marc Boillot was a very early harvester in 2007, starting with pinot noir on August 20 and bringing in his chardonnay between August 28 and September 2. "If we had waited we would have gotten slightly higher sugars and slightly lower acidity," he explained, "but rather overripe grapes, with less pure and more advanced chardonnay aromas." Potential alcohol levels were typically a moderate 12% to 12.2%, and the wines will be bottled between 12.8% and 13%. "It's not a year for a long elevage," noted Boillot, who did a lot of lees stirring to enrich the wines. "The wines began with less power than the '04s," he went on. "They started out meager but they've been taking on volume in barrel." All the wines had finished their malos and had been sulfited when I tasted them at the end of May. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; also a Becky Wasserman selection; numerous importers) Also recommended: Chassagne-Montrachet (85).