1999 Puligny-Montrachet Combettes

The 2000 growing season brought one of the all-time earliest harvests, according to Francois Carillon. Picking started on the first allowable day, September 11; previous early harvests were in '92 (September 12) and '76 (September 6). The Carillons did a longer decanting of the must than usual, then stirred the lees every two weeks until the end of the malolactic fermentations. Francois told me that the 2000s here were a bit lower in both grape sugars and acidity than the '99s, and tended to finish their fermentations with slightly higher residual sugar. The result, according to my tasting, is a rather easygoing set of 2000s, without quite the stony grip of the '99s. For his own part, Carillon describes the earlier vintage as more minerally and "a more typical Burgundy style."

The Carillons did not bottle their '98 crus until March of this year, and Fran篩s Carillon believes that wines such as the domain Perrieres and Referts will need at least five years of bottle aging. "The gras of the vintage is currently blocking the acidity in the '98s," he noted, adding that he expects the wines to remain closed for a while due to the concentration that came from very low yields. The '98s, he adds, have fat but less of the mineral character for which Puligny-Montrachets are prized; they also finished with relatively low levels of residual sugar-typically 1.0 to 1.2 grams per liter, vs. 1.3 to 1.8 for the '99s. The estate's '99s are actually lower in acidity than the '98s, but also have slightly lower pHs. The result is wines with "more Bourgogne character, more finesse than the '98s." Carillon describes them as more floral and more approachable early than the '98s, but is confident they will age well.