2005 Meursault Les Perrières 1er Cru

After having been told by Jean-Marc Roulot, Dominique Lafon and Arnaud Ente that they started harvesting chardonnay prior to the ban de vendange in 2006 in order to bring in healthy grapes with bright acidity, you can imagine my surprise when Thierry Matrot informed me that he began a full week after the ban. On September 14, the seeds and the skins were not yet ripe, he told me, even if potential alcohol levels were already 13%. Ultimately, with another week of sun the grapes lost a good bit of their water and ripened more thoroughly, and the concentration of fruit, he maintained, enabled the grapes to retain acidity. Matrot describes the results as "voluptuous, silky, easy wines," but noted that most of the '06s were a bit reduced at the time of my tasting as the malos had only recently finished. "The wines have round, pretty fruit and are perfect as aperitifs," he went on. "Vintage 2005 is the great vin de garde." I found Matrot's 2006s quite exotic and atypically alcoholic for wines from this excellent domain.

Thierry Matrot told me that his crop in Meursault was down 40% in 2005 due to the extent of millerandage and that he ultimately produced just 30 to 35 hectoliters per hectare.The malos finished by the end of February, at which point he stopped stirring the lees.Matrot describes the young 2005s as "round, fat and ripe, in the style of the 1989s.There was no hydric stress for chardonnay."The wines are rich in alcohol-between 13% and 13.5%.Matrot reminded me that he has not chaptalized chardonnay since 1996.