2006 Meursault Clousots

Javillier describes his '06s as wines with "ripeness at the limit." With natural alcohol levels between 13.5% and 13.8%, leaving the wines on their lees for the normal time span here might have accentuated their ripeness and resulted in heavy wines. He bottled the '06s in October of 2007, earlier than usual. I got the impression that the lower-alcohol, higher-acid 2007s are more Javillier's style, but he nonetheless believes that they will be "a bit under 2004 in quality." Interestingly, Javillier described the new set of wines as "like a mix of 1984 and 1990." The wines needed contact with the lees but not much batonnage, he told me, explaining that he found the lees slightly bitter. A couple of the wines finished with a hard edge at the end of May, but the best of them were quite refined. (A Peter Vezan selection; imported by North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA; also imported by Martin-Scott Wines, Ltd., Lake Success, NY)

Javillier started harvesting chardonnay in 2006 on September 19, bringing in fruit with potential alcohol between 13% and 13.5%. He believes this will be "a very good vintage to drink early with great pleasure, beginning one or two years after the bottling." But the wines have less class than the '05s and '04s, he went on, "and it would be sad to consume the '05s and '04s early." Javillier kept less of the lees in 2006 because he considered them to be less pristine than usual, and he did less batonnage as well. Incidentally, all of the 2005 labels indicate "Cuvee Speciale" because the wines were all bottled on the late side, between January and March of 2007. (A Peter Vezan selection; imported by North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA; also imported by Martin-Scott Wines, Ltd., Lake Success, NY)