2017 Meursault Les Grands Charrons

According to Jean-Marc Pillot, there are two types of white Burgundies in 2017: those from fruit picked in August with very high acidity, and those harvested under cooler conditions in September. Pillot himself started picking on September 3. He had advanced the harvest date by about a week from his original plan, “so the fruit was obviously ripe” and Pillot did very little chaptalization. He expressed the opinion that 13.5% natural alcohol in 2017 “was too ripe.”

One reason that Pillot moved up his harvest was that the quantities in his premier cru vineyards were not as huge as he had originally anticipated. He noted that he had “pulled leaves everywhere, very early,” and that that measure helped to limit yields to 45 to 50 hectoliters per hectare and up to the permitted maximum of 57 for village wines. “There wasn’t much malic acidity but tartaric acidity levels were healthy so the wines have a good acid balance,” he said, adding that “the 2015s are much richer, heavier wines in comparison. The ‘17s are elegant wines with energy; they’re not overly opulent.”

Incidentally, Pillot told me that he has “drastically cut back on sulfitage.” He makes sulfur additions only in the fermentation cuves, not in the press, which encourages a darker color in the juice and allows the oxidizable phenolics to precipitate out of the wine, which should enable it to age longer without oxidizing. “That’s a better idea than protecting the fruit too much from the beginning,” explains Pillot.

“Two thousand seventeen is very good for sure, but it’s too early to say if it’s great,” said Jean-Baptiste Bouzereau in early June. “The 2014s are finer and more delicate, as well as more saline than the ‘17s, but the ‘17s are every bit as pure.” Bouzereau started harvesting on August 30. There was substantial rain that night, and again on the night of September 2, but by then the family had brought in a good portion of their premier cru grapes. (“The rain made the pressing easier,” Bouzereau noted, referring to the softening effect of the precipitation on the grape skins.) Potential alcohol levels ranged from 12.6% to 13.2%, which Bouzereau described as the range he prefers. He lightly chaptalized the less-ripe cuvées to no more than 13%.

Bouzereau bought a more flexible and easily programmable new press in time for the 2017 vinification and kept more of the bourbes in 2017 as he began with very clean grapes due to the well-aerated clusters. He told me that the ‘17s were pure and precise even before the malos, which generally finished between January and May.