2014 Meursault Charmes 1er Cru

Jean-Pierre Latour knocked the ball out of the park in 2014, bottling a set of wines that he says are not for restaurants or early consumption. “It’s an exceptional, complete vintage with concentration, purity and near-perfect balance,” he told me in early June. “There wasn’t huge maturity but the wines nonetheless have great class and energy--and incredible force.” The skins were thick and the berries did not have a lot of juice, he added, and the wines were a great surprise with élevage, showing outstanding structure. “My only regret is that three-quarters of these wines will be drunk too early," he told me.

Acidity levels in the 2014s range as high as 4.8 grams per liter for the Meursault Genevrières Cuvée des Pierres, a wine that Latour compared to the 1996 in its precision and grip. “The 2014s are fruitier than the 2010s,” he added.

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.