2005 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

"A great year is a year when you don't have to eliminate bad grapes," said Henri Boillot."There have only been three years like that since I started in 1985:1990, 1999 and now 2005."Still, the added richness of the chardonnay in 2005 has posed its own set of problems.For starters, it was necessary to pick the chardonnay before the pinot noir, said Boillot.And it was not a year for stirring the lees."Batonnage has made some wines too heavy," he explained."When you stir the lees you risk losing the gas that keeps the wines fresh, and the wines can take on too much fat for their acid structure."The malolactic fermentations of the 2005s were often late in Boillot's negociant cellar (Boillot estimated that 30% of the barrels had not yet finished their secondary fermentations), but nearly every barrel I tasted at the beginning of June was finished with its malo.However, none of the domain wines aging at Boillot's home in Volnay had finished their malos, and so my notes on these cuvees must be taken as preliminary.