2006 Meursault Charmes 1er Cru

Jean-Pierre Latour warned me that his 2007s would be hard to taste, as few of the malolactic fermentations were finished and the wines were still holding a lot of gas. He had also been doing intensive batonnage (every 10 to 14 days) straight through to the end of May, and several of the wines were seriously cloudy. Latour brought in his chardonnays with potential alcohol in the 12% to 12.7% range, and typically chaptalized a half-degree to a degree. The wines, he said, finished very dry, often with as little as 0.7 grams per liter of residual sugar. Latour, who started picking chardonnay in 2006 five days before the ban de vendange, noted that the major risk in the earlier vintage was to end up with heavy wines. He describes his own wines as very concentrated, with decent acidity, but prefers 2005 for its higher acidity and lighter touch. He compared 2006 to 1995. Like several producers I visited in May, Latour made a point of showing his finished 2006s before his 2007s, on the theory that the richer and softer 2006s might come off as flat or ponderous following the more vibrant young 2007s. (Chemin des Vins; importers include Bayfield Importing, Brooklyn, NY; The Stacole Co., Boca Raton, FL; Fine Vines, Chicago, IL; Wine Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA)

As at a number of other Meursault addresses, 2005 at Latour-Giraud brought a superbly concentrated and impeccably balanced set of wines. Jean-Pierre Latour loves the "crunchy fruit" of 2005 and says this is his favorite vintage of recent years. "Two thousand six is pure but different," he says. It's like 2002 in its combination of purity and richness but doesn't have quite the fruit of 2005." Latour started harvesting on the Friday before the ban de vendange, and finished his chardonnay parcels on the evening of September 19, before many growers in Chassagne-Montrachet picked their first grapes. He did less frequent lees stirring with the '06s than usual, and had just about finished as of my end-of-May visit. (Chemin des Vins; importers include Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; Bayfield Importing, Brooklyn, NY; The Stacole Co., Boca Raton, FL; Fine Vines, Chicago, IL; Wine Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA)