2013 Meursault Narvaux

I tasted with Nicolas Mestre, who is now working with his father Jean-François, who has been in full charge of winemaking decisions since 2009 (prior to that, he still answered to Bernard and Chantal Michelot). The estate has moved to earlier harvesting in recent years and the Mestres use about 30% demi-muids for their village and premier cru wines. They picked their Chardonnay with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5% in 2014.

The wines now go into barrel by gravity, where they spend a year before being racked into tanks for four to six months. Mestre stirred the lees of the '14s only three times, as they "are not looking for a buttery Meursault style as in the old days," according to Nicolas. And all manipulations of the wine now take place protected from oxygen, with the result that they have reduced the amount of free sulfur at bottling to 25 ppm.

Mestre told me that the estate has farmed organically since 2012 but is not yet certified. They have cut doses of all added products, making sulfur and copper treatments more frequently but with smaller amounts. "The vines are now expressing themsleves earlier. And we're getting more typicity without batonnage and with low treatments," said Nicolas.

He believes that the 2014s "will be great to drink young." He finds the 2013s more taut and believes they are starting to close up in the bottle but he still thinks they will be easy to drink fairly early. This estate made barely half of a normal crop in '13--and even less in certain parcels--owing to the poor flowering and losses to hail. Incidentally, I tasted all of the '14s from 2013 (i.e., once-used) barrels.