2006 Chambolle-Musigny Fuees

"The selection was the key to the purity of the wines in 2006," said Christophe Perrot-Minot, who purchased a second destemmer and another sorting table for the 2007 vintage. "It was particularly important to eliminate the grapes whose skins were scarred by hail," he added, noting that 70% of the Chapelle and 20% of the Clos de Beze was affected by the late July storm. Perrot-Minot continues to back away from extraction and manipulation in his attempt to make wines with "more subtle aromatics and more differences according to terroir." His pre-fermentation cold soak is now done at a more moderate temperature, and in 2006, he told me, he did a total of just three punchdowns for each cuvee; in 2002, in comparison, he did three pigeages per day! "Henri Jayer said that to make great wine it's necessary to be lazy, to let the wine make itself," he said. "Of course, Jayer also did not believe in green-harvesting." In November the 2006s were still on their lees, unracked.