2004 Corton Clos Rognet Grand Cru

"Two thousand five is a great vintage, no question about it," said Jean-Nicolas Meo. "There's a silkiness to the wines that might not be obvious today. And they're also a bit more acidic than I expected a year ago, which will push back their period of optimum drinkability. The vintage will evolve very slowly but I don't expect the wines ever to close up completely." Meo went on: "We had some rain during the week of September 5, and another 20 millimeters early the following week. The vineyards immediately took on water, and we lost 0.5 degrees of potential alcohol in one week. The good weather returned on September 16 or 17 and we started picking on the 16th. But we quickly stopped for four days because we figured out that the grapes needed more ripeness. And of course the weather forecast at that point was very favorable." Meo ultimately produced his smallest crop level to date with the exception of 2003, due in large part to losses from hail in May: 17 hl/ha for Brulees and Cros Parantoux, 21 for Richebourg and 25 for Clos Vougeot. Incidentally, Meo told me he did not experiment with including some stems in the vinification for fear of getting wines with "too much structure." (Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, 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)

Jean-Nicolas Meo describes 2004 as "a nice, well-balanced vintage saved by high grape sugars. The main drawback is lack of concentration. There wasn't enough stuffing in the grapes for the wines to achieve greatness. The vintage is more red fruit than black, like 2000. "Meo, who did up to three separate green harvests in his various parcels, was one of a few growers to tell me he did a saignee in some of his cuvees to obtain more concentrated musts. Meo considers the 2004s to be riper and softer than the 2001s. "We had a different balance in 2001," he explained. "The higher acidity in '01 helped us extract more color and get more profound wines, with deeper fruit, but at lower levels of alcohol. "My tasting began with a few of Meo's negociant offerings. (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)