2013 Meursault Charmes 1er Cru

Now that the 2013s are in bottle, Jean-Pierre Latour-Giraud considers the vintage to be "a pleasant surprise." He began with more of the fine lees than usual and did a lot of batonnage until the following July. "The biggest surprise was how easy the wines were to taste after they were fined, as well as how precise they were, considering that they're more exotic than the 2014s. And so far they are remaining open in bottle." Latour noted that the extensive millerandage during the problematic flowering gave an extra element of richness to the grapes "that we did not see for the first 12 months," adding that "this is now a very concentrated vintage, at the limits of _surmaturité." And yet acidity levels in the premier crus range as high as 4.6 grams per liter, according to Latour.

Latour describes his 2014s as "more delicate, precise and fresh than the 2013s, and very concentrated as the thick-skinned grapes contained little juice." Potential alcohol levels were in the high 12.5% to 13.5% range and production was down 60% from normal, compared to minus 30% in 2013 and 2011. He was still stirring the lees at the end of May due to the high acidity of the wines (up to 4.8 g/l in the case of the Meursault Genevrières). I tasted samples from barrels that had finished their malos and had been sulfured about a month before my visit. Incidentally, Latour currently rates 2014 higher than 2012 for its greater fruit definition.

The growth cycle was over by the end of September in 2013, said Jean-Pierre Latour, and there wasn't much to gain by waiting any longer to harvest.He picked between September 27 and October 3, describing himself as "among the first one-third to harvest in Meursault."He brought in fruit with 12.2% alcohol "at most," then chaptalized by about a half-degree.The post-malo wines have good acidity, in the 4.3 grams-per-liter range for the village wines.Yields were very low, as the old vines in particular suffered during the flowering.Interestingly, Latour compared his 2013s to his 2010s:"They're classic but without quite the same early eclat to their fruit.They're not the most joyous wines today.But we had cleaner grapes in 2013 than in 2012, and the '13s are not fragile wines."Happily, they were also a lot easier to taste than the '12s were a year ago, as the earlier set of wines had barely begun their malolactic fermentations--in fact, several of them did not finish until November of '13.Latour expressed the opinion that the 2012s did not have enough energy to go through their malos early.On the other hand, they retained good acidity (around 4.5 grams per liter) and have powerful, pure fruit."The small volume of wine permitted high quality," he summarized, "and the late malos served to preserve the fruit, but some people pressed too much to get a bit more wine."Both 2012 and 2013 appear to be very successful here, with the top 2013s particularly impressive in the context of their vintage.I'm not sure if Latour has yet been properly recognized as one of the most thoughtful and intelligent producers in the village.