2002 Corton Clos Rognet Grand Cru

Jean-Nicolas Meo started his 2003 harvest on August 28, eliminating the raisined grapes, which he said represented a very small percentage of the crop.He was one of several proprietors who told me that their wines seemed to get fresher with the malolactic fermentations, offering the explanation that there was more precipitation of potassium than of tartaric acidity.The malos here finished between January and July of 2004, and the wines were still on their lees, unracked, when I tasted them in November.Incidentally, Meo, who uses about 20% to 25% Troncais oak, told me he's not wild for the way these barrels are combining with the 2003s:he feels this oak is exaggerating the already big structure of the wines and accentuating their tendency toward heaviness. I was especially impressed by Meo's top three cuvees (Vosne-Romanee Aux Brulees, Vosne-Romanee Cros Parantoux and Richebourg), which largely avoid the roasted side of the vintage."Wines from our cooler sites should evolve gracefully," said Meo."With the others, there's certainly an unknown element.But if the evolution of the wines in barrel is an indication, they should age well.Their evolution so far has been much less brutal and quick than we feared at the beginning." I started with a look at Meo's negociant offerings, of which my favorites were an aromatically pure and minerally Nuits-Saint-Georges Perrieres and a highly concentrated, high-alcohol Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras, which boasted exotic berry liqueur and chocolate flavors without coming across as roasted.(Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, CA; also represented by Domaines & Saveurs/Jeanne-Marie de Champs, imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY and Boston Wine Company, Somerville, MA)

I tasted these wines in November with assistant winemaker Christian Faurois.Just before going to press with my notes, I asked Jean-Nicolas Meo for his up-to-the-minute thoughts on the 2002s.He told me that last fall he found a number of the 2002s a littler harder and more closed than he would have expected, but hoped that the wines would open after the racking and prior to the bottling. After all, 2002 was a very ripe vintage and I thought the wines would be a bit more approachable. This is a vintage I inevitably compare to 1999: in terms of analysis, the balance was roughly the same. But the '99s appeared immediately charming, and you almost did not feel the acidity that was present in the wines and that ensures ageworthiness. With 2002, you felt this acidity from the beginning; aromatically, the wines were less open at the start than the '99s. In November, the 2002s were different every day, and sometimes quite closed.They are now very fragrant and open but remain a bit tighter than the '99s, which is seen by some as a positive sign: they could be longer-lived."