2017 Meursault Les Perrières 1er Cru

This recent dinner was a great opportunity to catch up with friends over a leisurely meal and enjoy some nice bottles. The food was off the charts, and the wines were pretty terrific too.

The Matrots started harvesting on August 29 and were interrupted by rain on the night of August 30, according to Elsa Matrot, who added that it began raining again on the afternoon of September 1, then more heavily the following day. The Pinot Noir grapes were more likely to swell from the rain but the estate also made a full 50 hectoliters per hectare in their Chardonnay vineyards.

According to Elsa, who shares winemaking duties with her sister Adele, the fruit came in with potential alcohol between 12.8% and 13.2% and did not require chaptalization. Although she admitted that the wines made from grapes picked after the rain may have lost some concentration, she maintained that there was “no major fall” in acidity and that the ‘17s show good balance today. “They will be good young but they also have the gras for mid-term aging,” she opined. By the way, this estate does not believe in stirring the lees. “We’ll use micro-bullage if there are problems with reduction,” said Elsa Matrot, “but that wasn’t an issue with the ‘17s.” The malos mostly occurred in January, although the cuvées in their coldest barrel cellar finished a couple months later.