2006 Chassagne-Montrachet

The Carillons picked quite early in 2007, beginning on August 30, as they were afraid of getting aromas of surmaturite. The fruit came in with grape sugars between 11.9% and 12.5% and the wines were chaptalized between a half-degree and a degree, according to Jacques Carillon. He was still stirring the lees at the end of May, mostly because the malos were later than those of the 2006s. Carillon describes the '07s as rounder than the '04s, but without the earlier vintage's penetrating minerality. Thus, he goes on, it's likely to be a vintage for mid-term aging. Thanks to fairly strict green-harvesting, yields here in the family's premier cru vineyards were held to 45 to 46 hectoliters per hectare, according to Carillon. "The '06s were easy when they were in cuve, but they have tightened up following the bottling and now appear to be more classic," he told me. "In contrast, the 2005s were round and flatteur at the beginning of their lives in bottle, but are closing up now and showing a strong minerality."

Jacques Carillon compared the family's young 2006s to the '99s in their high levels of alcohol. Grape sugars in '06 were mostly between 13.5% and 14.2%, he told me. "The wines possess their normal minerality, but they will need bottle aging to really show their mineral side." Yes, 5% or 10% of the grapes were affected by rot in 2006, Carillon admitted, but it was more noble than gray. The 2005s here have turned out very well: they appear to have gained considerably in refinement during their last months in barrel.