2013 Meursault Clousots

Javillier harvested very early in both 2014 and 2013, beginning on September 10 and September 22, respectively. He describes the 2014s as denser but less complex than the '13s but noted that it's still early "so we need to wait and see." With a couple of exceptions, crop levels were almost normal in 2014 and potential alcohols were in the healthy 13% range. Javillier told me that 2014 was "a bit like 2013, 2010 and 1999."

Javillier is convinced that the very early harvesters in 2013 were able to make wines with more precision and terroir character. He harvested fruit with 12.3% to 12.5% potential alcohol and chaptalized lightly, then did very little batonnage. For the riper 2014s he did more lees stirring, "because with the higher level of alcohol I wanted to get a better balance."

Javillier told me he was one of the first growers to harvest in Meursault in 2013 (he began on September 24 or 25) as he prefers to make very pure wines and was alarmed to see rot developing.The grapes were high in acidity, and the post-malo lots still have a healthy 4.3 or 4.4 grams per liter, he added.Javillier recently purchased a pneumatic press and used it for about 50% of the 2011 harvest, using his old Vaselin press, which results in more lees, for the other half.But with the "more delicate" 2013 fruit, he went entirely with the gentler pneumatic press.Javillier showed me representative samples of his 2013s that had more or less finished their malolactic fermentations.Incidentally, he described 2012 as "a miracle considering the catastrophic year.We had very good quality owing to having clean fruit and very small quantities."He went on to compare 2013 and 2012 to 2008 and 2009."We had a lot of malic acidity in '13 and '08 and more tartaric acidity in '09 and '12, which gives more fullness to the wines." (A Peter Vezan selection, imported by The Wine Company, www.thewinecompany.net; also imported by Martin-Scott Wines, www.martinscottwines.com)