2008 Meursault Luchets

As at a number of estates I visit regularly on the Cote de Beaune, my tasting here at the beginning of June was really my first opportunity to get a clear look at the 2008s, since so many of these wines were in the middle of their atypically late secondary fermentations during my previous white wine tour. Roulot told me that he now prefers 2008 to the somewhat exotic 2006 vintage "but I wouldn't have said that a year ago." Still, he said, the '08s are for drinking before the 2007s because their acidity is more buffered by flesh. And he doesn't quite trust the raw material in 2008. "Two thousand seven is a sharply focused vintage for the purist," he told me, adding that the grapes were healthier than those of 2008. The newest crop of wines, the 2009s, remind Roulot of the 2002s: "They have tasted good since the beginning. By the way, the 2002s are to drink now. They won't be better in five years than they are now." He then opened a bottle of the 2002 Tessons, which was silky, sweet and at its peak.