2005 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

Michel Niellon, who likes his white wines young, "with fruit," is enjoying his 2004s now. When I mentioned having recently tasted some of his '85s and '86s (the '85 Batard-Montrachet, for example, is a monumental wine), he looked at me as if I were demented and said "that's ancient history." Of course, in his small cellar he has limited space to keep old bottles. The 2006 malos here had only recently finished when I stopped by to visit, and the wines had not yet been racked. Niellon describes 2006 as a rich, ripe vintage that can be drunk early or cellared for four or five years. Like a few of his neighbors in Chassagne-Montrachet, he finds more vivacity and freshness in the '06s than in the '05s, not to mention more personality. Niellon started harvesting the day before the ban in '06 with his Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chaumees and would have started a day or two earlier if he could have gathered his picking crew together by then. His wines are fresh rather than especially fat-not a bad thing in this vintage. (Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, New York, NY) Also recommended: Chassagne-Montrachet (85).

Michel Niellon wasn't happy about the slow pace of the malolactic fermentations, as he generally prefers to sulfur his wines in the spring and start preparing them for an early bottling.Many of his wines in old barrels and in enamel-lined stainless steel tanks had not yet finished their secondary fermentations and he was in the process of heating his cellar to get them to finish.(The tanks-or "cisterns," as he calls them-hold about six barrels' worth of wine and are used to age about 50% of his larger cuvees, according to Niellon.)Niellon maintained that 2005 resembles 2004 in acidity.Never one to get too worked up about a new vintage, he described the 2005s as "fruity, with good material and a normal yield."I limit my notes below to samples that had finished their malos.