2011 Meursault Village

"Sometimes you have to have the courage to do nothing," says Jean-Philippe Fichet. The estate will surprise readers for their openness. Even the 2009s weren't this supple and gracious when they were young. The harvest started on August 28 and lasted about a week. Fichet will no longer be making a Genevrières, as he wasn't happy with the quality of the fruit he was buying for that wine. The 2011s spent 12 months in oak followed by six months in steel.

"The 2012s will be good but they risk being opulent," said Fichet."The wines have balance and depth, and no rot due to the small clusters and the spaces between the grapes.But the tiny crops are never the best:without enough juice in the grapes, the wines can be too powerful, or even heavy."Fichet has done almost no settling of the must during the past three vintages and adapts his batonnage to the vintage.In 2012 he did what he described as very little batonnage (some wines were stirred just two or three times, and others up to ten).I have limited my notes on Fichet's 2012s to the wines that had finished their malos at the time of my visit.In 2011, Fichet started picking on August 28."The '11s could have been a bit like the 2003s," he told me, "but they benefited from a certain lack of ripeness at the end.The wines are sympa and balanced; they can be drunk young or aged."