2002 Vosne-Romanée Village

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."