1998 Meursault Charmes 1er Cru

Jean-Pierre Latour, looking positively svelte after having shed 20 kilos, has a promising crop of '99s in the works, from yields held to reasonable levels by a strict bourgeonnage Latour, whose wines can appear lean early on owing to his reluctance to chaptalize, nevertheless picks on the early side to retain acidity rather than waiting for higher sugars. Indeed, acids were average in '98 and a bit higher in '99. Latour told me he stirs the lees to enrich his wines and "to give them the ability to resist the wood, which results in less bitterness at the end of the levage " Latour '98s, bottled between November of '99 and March of '00, have turned out purer than most Meursaults from this difficult year. "I did a lot of work with the '98s, although it was hard to keep eliminating lesser wine due to the tiny size of the crop to begin with," Latour noted. He carried out a stronger bentonite fining than usual to "clean the middle of the palate." (A Patrick Lesec selection; importers include Classic Wine Imports, W. Roxbury, MA; Monsieur Touton, New York, NY; The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL; and Adventures in Wine, Daly City, CA)

Jean-Pierre Latour has a promising set of '98s in the works, despite the difficulties of the growing season and subsequent challenges during vinification and elevage. Following careful pressing of the grapes, Latour eliminated most of the bourbes for fear of getting a bad taste in the lees. But the lack of "useful material" in the musts (also due partly to the fact that the September rains washed so much of the wild yeasts off the grape skins) made the alcoholic fermentations an adventure; still, says Latour, the slow fermentations have given the wines more complexity. A few of his '98s finished with about three grams per liter of residual sugar. Latour describes these wines as richer and more complex than the '97s, with good average acidity and healthy pHs. The '97s, in contrast, are more fragile, he says, "but more in texture than in the direction of oxidation." Latour has bottled his wines without filtration since 1994. (A Patrick Lesec selection; importers include Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; Monsieur Touton, New York, NY; The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL; and Adventures in Wine, Daly City, CA)