1998 Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

"Nineteen ninety-nine has good gras " Pernot told me at the end of June, just before leaving for his summer house off France Atlantic Coast. "The wines give the impression of low acidity," he explained, "but their pHs are actually healthy. It's tempting to say that the '99s will age quickly, but maybe not. Certainly the wines will please my clients." This was a huge crop, up there in volume with 1982 and 1973. "Many growers compare it to '73," Pernot noted, "but '73 was more meager, more acid than '99." As always, Pernot's wines had been racked by early spring and were easy to taste in June. It's always a treat to compare Pernot's two grand crus: the Bienvenue can be sexy and appealing early on, but the richer, brooding, more backward Batard often makes the more impressive bottle in the long run. And they are strikingly different wines: Pernot pointed out that two of his three parcels of Batard are in Chassagne-Montrachet, "quite far from my Bienvenue." (Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; Robert Chadderdon Selections, New York, NY; also a Peter Vezan Selection, numerous importers)

Pernot describes 1998 as a good-sized crop in the village appellations but small in the premier crus, although the low crop level did not necessarily lead to greater intensity. The grand crus, he notes, were less affected by frost. Like a few of his neighbors, Pernot believes that the rains of early September helped to ripen the fruit following the very hot August conditions. This is a vintage to drink early, Pernot adds, but the wines are not less rich than the '97s. In fact, he adds, the two vintages are very much alike, with similar acidity levels. All the '98s were racked and fined in early spring, and were to have been bottled in late August. Pernot stirs the lees frequently until the end of alcoholic fermentation, then does a weekly batonnage until the malos finish. As a result of the April frost, which promised to cut production and thus reduce income on the wine Pernot still sells to negociants such as Drouhin, Pernot decided not to buy any new barrels for the '98 vintage. Interestingly, Pernot prefers his '97s to his '92s, as he finds the earlier set of wines a bit too high in acidity.