1997 Puligny-Montrachet Combettes

Francois Carillon believes the '97s will shut down within the next year and then will be best to drink three or four years down the road-but a bit later for the top crus. Grape sugars were typically between 12.5% and 13%, although the Referts reached 13.8%. Carillon describes his '98s as round and fat, perhaps midway between '95 and '92 in style, but with a bit less material than either of these previous vintages. Still, he adds, they are higher in acidity and slightly more concentrated than the '97s. A couple of the Carillons' sites were hit hard by frost in the spring of '98. At the beginning of the harvest, the fruit was a bit less ripe than that of 1997, but sugars mounted quickly, and the last fruit came in at around 13.6%.

Carillon '96s have turned out brilliantly, eclipsing the very good '95s made at this address. "The '95s will be more opulent early on," Francois Carillon opines, "but they may become heavier with time in bottle." (This was a sentiment, by the way, that was shared by a few other growers I visited this spring, including Carillon neighbor Gerard Boudot.) The '96s, according to Carillon, are "less large" than the '95s, ripe yet "cool" wines with strong grapefruit and mineral character and with more fat, acidity and minerality than the '90s. But they are likely to close up and show their hard side for the next several years. Grape sugars reached 14% for the Bienvenue Batard Montrachet, but acids were in the bracing 4.5 to 5 grams per liter range. Carillon's '97s are somewhat softer wines, with slightly lower grape sugars, but they are not at all wimpy. These wines may be bottled a month or two earlier than the '96s were. Carillon describes his '97s as less minerally versions of '95 and '92. I also found them to be fresher than his '94s.