2020 Corton-Perrières Grand Cru

As usual, Jean-Nicolas Méo was on hand to guide me through practically the entirety of his 2019s from the domaine and négoce side of their operation. Méo pointed out, they have complete viticulture and winemaking control on the cuvées. I commenced with a couple of whites. “The Chardonnay was extremely ripe in 2019,” Méo remarked. “I had to harvest the Clos St. Philibert during the red harvest instead of afterwards as I usually do. I was watching the Chardonnay all the time. It was only in the ten days days before picking that I realised how the ripeness was accelerating." We then broached the series of reds. “We harvested a week before we expected, commencing on 13 September. The extraction was quicker and better than the previous year and after the five-day cold soak the colour of the juice was already black. We had the acidity right at the beginning. The alcohol levels are around 14.0°, which is high, with a couple of cuvées at 14.5° and 14.6°. I would have preferred them to be a bit lower though some are around 13.2°. Until I tasted the 2019s after the 2020 harvest, I did not know how the wines would show but I find they express the terroir and they are less super-ripe than anticipated. I think it is superior to 2018 due to the 2019s greater structure and better acidity levels. They are not as light as they might be, but the aromatics are very attractive and I don’t feel they are too heavy or over-the-top. I would rate it a bit below 2015, but vintages like this are difficult to predict. It might evolve like 2009 and then we will have a great vintage. Or they could shut down.”

This was an impressive set of 2019s crowned by the usual suspects, Cros Parantoux, Richebourg and Premier Crus such as a show-stopping Aux Brûlées. Do not ignore one of a number of outstanding Clos Vougeot in 2019 and a noble Nuits Saint-Georges Les Murgers (I would draw your attention to a heavenly 1959 poured by Méo at a La Paulée almost a year earlier that I included in my 1959 article on Vinous.

Jean-Nicolas Méo guided me through his 2018s in his cellars in Vosne-Romanée. "We started the harvest on 29 August in Corton for one day, resuming on 1 September and we finished around seven days later," he explained. "It was an uncomplicated harvest that followed a natural order. The yields were good this year and nearly all the wines are under 14% alcohol. I can see them following the 2009s and tightening up after being open in their youth or they could be the 1985 that might seems to fade after a few years but actually reach a plateau where they remain upon for many years." With parcels scattered in such enviable premier and grand crus as theses, you inevitably find some absolute gems and the Cros-Parantoux and Richebourg one-two finish is a fabulous way to finish a tasting. What I really like here was Méo's outstanding Vosne-Romanée Aux Brûlées and some enticing offerings at entry-level, such as the négociant bottled Ladoix Blanc.

It is always a pleasure to meet up with Jean-Nicolas Méo. This year I was smitten by two bottles of his Richebourg, the 1986 and 1991, the former made by Henri Jayer and the latter by Méo himself. So I was eager to return to the domaine and see what the latest vintage has to offer. Anything in the league of those two wines?

“We have cuvées with a little reduction at the moment,” Méo advised down in his cellar. “We have not racked the wines. We adjusted the SO2 last week and that changes the wine slightly, making it tighter but often more precise. It was a good growing season, quite uneventful. There was a fear of frost at the end of April, but otherwise it was fine. Fruit set was good. Flowering was rapid and took place over a week, ensuring a sound and healthy crop. We had a little rain in July that caused some concern, but there was no rot, and the rain in August came too late to cause damage. We started the harvest on September 6 and finished around September 13. It was a big harvest, but quick. The weather forecast was not good. We stopped for one day when we thought there would be a big day of rain, but only 2–3mm fell instead of the 20mm predicted. The wines are around 12.5° to 13.0° after a small chaptalisation. It is a vintage that is a bit lighter than 2015 and 2016 but has acquired some density during the last summer. That also happened with 2016. The change caused by the malolactic fermentation was more noticeable in 2017 since the malic acid was lower in 2015 and 2016. We are also now using less SO2 before bottling.”

I was impressed by the 2017s at Méo-Camuzet and I find many of these wines equal to their 2015 and 2016 counterparts. There is great purity here, a palpable sense of terroir expression, and I agree that these wines seem to have gained density during their barrel maturation, prompting the question of how they will perform once in bottle. I particularly admire the Vosne-Romanée Aux Brûlées, which has the audacity to surpass the Cros Parantoux. Here one finds another very fine Clos de Vougeot, whilst the Corton Clos-Rognet, an intriguing wine with a slightly gamy finish, should not be ignored.

Jean-Nicolas Méo cut back on his production of négociant wine in 2016 because there was less fruit available “and the quality was debatable.” Still, he believes that the difference between frosted and non-frosted vines are not that obvious in 2016, as he had grape sugars of 13.5% or higher virtually across his many holdings and did not chaptalize. (He started harvesting on September 26, although he admitted to bringing in some of his most precocious vines, such as the Corton Rognets, two days earlier.) “We had a lot of sugar from the start, and we also had some sugar after the press,” he told me. “The wines were difficult to ferment, mostly due to their high alcohol, but the fermentation were not really stuck. When we de-vatted and pressed, we saw that the alcohol levels were slightly higher than at the outset.”

Méo did a relatively soft vinification in 2016, with some vats done without sulfur additions. Although he destemmed all of his fruit, for a number of wines he added back a portion of the stems. Méo, who is backing away slightly from his use of new oak for some of his top wines, told me he was surprised to find that the ‘16s have slightly higher pHs than his ‘15s (typically 3.5 to 3.6 in ’16 but mostly 3.4 to 3.5 the previous year). The malos here occurred at their normal time—between March and June—and the wines, with one exception, were still in barrel, unracked, at the time of my November visit. Méo noted that the ‘16s had become a bit more serious—more dense and structured—since the summer without losing their charm. As my father used to say, I was "visibly impressed" by this set of wines, and Méo's top cuvées should be among the elite bottles of the vintage.

The handful of 2015s I tasted here were also stunning. Méo told me that it’s his favorite vintage since 1999: “complete wines with great balance.” But this superb producer, normally very generous about opening bottles, declined to participate in my 1999 survey, as he was nervous about showing it in his cellar.

Jean-Nicolas Méo started harvesting his Pinot Noir on September 3, then stopped for a couple of days on the 6th and 7th, ultimately finishing on September 11. He now wishes he had picked one or two days earlier. “We had a big debate about picking times,” he explained. “The harvest in Vosne-Romanée was very spread out over a three-week period. Some people waited because they thought the skins were not ripe, which was true in the first week of September. But some fruit got overripe quickly during the second week.”

Still, Méo told me that he can't find a fault in the 2015 vintage. “The wines are dense, ripe, fresh and fruity, with great balance and generosity, and they show the terroir.” He described 2015 as “a blend of 2009 and 2005: higher in acidity than 2009 and slightly riper than 2005. It’s an especially strong vintage for village wines; the others will need time. The big wines of the vintage may need refining with age but they’re not overly closed now,” he added. Like a number of his colleagues, Méo believes that the '15s "won't necessarily go through a long closed period.”

Méo, who has cut back on both punchdowns and pumpovers in recent years, is also minimizing racking; in fact, although the malos finished in July, he had only racked a few wines as of mid-November. The samples Méo prepared were approximations of the final blends, which feature 20% to 25% new oak for the village wines and 33% for the premier crus.

"The 2014 growing season was bizarre in the sense that there were a lot of ups and downs," said Jean-Nicolas Méo in November."We had a rainy August until the 25th, and then good weather until September 19. The grape sugars accumulated very slowly. In fact, during the last week, nothing much happened to the sugars, perhaps due to vineyard stress from such a changeable year." It was a bit similar to Oregon in 2015, added Méo, who is involved in a new project there.

Méo began harvesting on September 12, "slightly earlier than we had originally planned," owing in part to the growing incidence of Drosophila Suzukii. (The team did two passes through the vines to drop fruit that was affected by acid rot. ) Although he had also carried out some green harvesting, he still brought in a sizable crop: about 20% higher than normal, whereas the previous four vintage were 5% to 25% lower than average."I wasn't wild with the 2014s at the start but today I'm very pleased with the wines," he summarized."It's an easygoing vintage but some wines are more serious than you would think." Incidentally, a few of Méo's négociant bottlings are likely to include some estate fruit in 2014.

Jean-Nicolas Méo started harvesting his estate vines on October 2 and was surprised to find excellent phenolic ripeness even though grape sugars were in the 11.5% to 12% range. It was necessary to eliminate a significant quantity of rotten berries but there were relatively few pink or green ones, he told me. None of the 2013s here will be bottled with as much as 13% alcohol, with the possible exception of the always-ripe Corton Clos Rognet. Extraction was easy with the 2013s, noted Méo, "as the green elements stayed behind." Some barrels were still finishing their malolactic fermentations at the beginning of November but most malos ended between mid-summer and October.

The crop level in 2012 was small but not catastrophic, said Jean-Nicolas Meo. "Whatever we had at the flowering we didn't lose afterwards. There was no loss from mildew or oidium and due to the nice September weather there was no botrytis, thanks also to the small berries and loose clusters. There was some rain during the harvest [Meo started picking his Corton on September 19, and the Cote de Nuits on the 21st] but the grapes seemed immune." There was a wide range of pHs after the malos, which Meo attributed to the precipitation of potassium, and the young 2012s struck me as rather charming wines that would be approachable early. With a few notable exceptions Meo's domain wines show the delicate, precise, earlier-picked side of 2012. He chaptalized his wines about a half-degree except where potential alcohol levels had reached a natural 13%. The 2012s had all been racked by the time of my visit, the crus just prior to the 2013 harvest. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, www.kermitlynch.com; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs; importers include Frederick Wildman & Sons, www.frederickwildman.com)

I was deeply impressed with the wines I tasted at Méo-Camuzet this year. In particular, these are some of the most intense, mineral-driven 2012s I came across. According to winemaker Peer Reiss malos were very long and in some cases did not finish until November 2013, which is very late, even by the standards of a vintage in which malos were slow to finish in many cellars. While these 2012s are gorgeous across the board, I don't expect too many of the domaine bottlings to be ready to drink anytime soon.

Jean-Nicolas Méo's 2011s were quite awkward from barrel. Fortunately, I was able to taste a few finished wines from bottle. According to Méo, sugars were the lowest since 1994. All of the wines were lightly chaptalized, which was common in this vintage. At first, I thought 2011 would be a vintage of easygoing wines, but some of the wines I tasted from bottle suggest otherwise, although I stress I only tasted a selection of 2011s and not the entire range.

Jean-Nicolas Meo describes 2011 as "much better than 2007, with a bit more of everything." He began harvesting on September 2 with grape sugars in the 11.5% to 12% range, then chaptalized less than one degree "in increments to prolong the extraction," bringing the wines up to about 12.5%. "It's still a light vintage in terms of alcohol," he told me. Meo did a pre-selection in the vineyard to nip the spread of rot in the bud, then eliminated another 10% or so of the grapes in the winery. Most of the wines had been racked once at the time of my visit, and Meo told me that he had added a bit too much sulfur, which made some of the wines tricky to taste. The 2011s, he added, are now more structured than they appeared to be last winter, and the vintage is dominated by red fruits. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, www.kermitlynch.com; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs; importers include Frederick Wildman & Sons, www.frederickwildman.com and Winebow, www.winebow.com)

Jean-Nicolas Méo was away on the day of my visit, so I tasted with assistant winemaker Peer Reiss. The harvest started on September 22 and took about ten days to complete. Overall, I am a big fan of the 2010s here. Although I did not get a chance to taste the 2009s from bottle, my notes suggest 2010 will turn out to be the more interesting vintage. The Méo-Camuzet négociantwines are reviewed separately.

Due to the late malos, which ended here between June and August, the 2010s remained tight for a long time, noted Jean-Nicolas Meo. "They previously lacked generosity and charm, and it's only in the last three or four weeks that the wines are starting to reveal themselves," he added. In fact, he went on, the fruit in 2010 was picked with lower acidity and higher sugars than in 2008, and the very small grapes have produced wines with excellent balance. In the course of our tasting of his negociant and domain wines, Meo described 2010 as "a 50/50 blend of 2005 and 2008." (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines et Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, importers include Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Winebow, Somerville, MA)

Jean-Nicolas Méo began harvesting on September 12. He did 17-18 days of cuvaison and did one racking before the wines were prepared for bottling. I was not able to taste a handful of wines that were racked just before my visit, including the Cros Parantoux. Méo is among the growers who believe The 2009s will age well on their depth of fruit.

I tasted in November with assistant enologist Coralie Allexant, then received an update from Jean-Nicolas Meo on the progress of the 2009s shortly before going to press with this issue. "Obviously 2009 was a very ripe year, with a very fine month of August," Meo told me. "I think the sugars shot up at the very end, just before the harvest. We probably could have picked a little earlier, but not much, perhaps two days." Following the fermentations, acidity levels are low and pHs on the high side, but the slow evolution of the wines in barrel has helped reinforce their structures, Meo added. He told me that the wines tasted especially pleasant when I visited in November but since then they have acquired "more seriousness, not to say austerity." Still, he considers them to be "very fat and pleasant wines with a good capacity to age," closer in character to 1999 than to 2005, which he considers to be almost almost opposite in style. (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Winebow, Somerville, MA) Also recommended: 2009 Marsannay (85-87).