1998 Echézeaux Grand Cru

Jacques Lardiere did very long macerations in '97, '98 and '99-typically 28 to 36 days in '99, though due to the sheer size of the crop he had to speed up the maceration of a few of his smaller wines by punching down the cap more frequently. Although Jadot made the full allowable yields in many of its holdings (in some instances, production was three times the yield of '98, according to Lardiere), the best cru bottlings will have no problem aging for 30 years, Lardiere claims. "We had similar grape sugars to '98 and slightly lower acidity, but there are plenty of tannins to compensate for the lower acids," he explained. "It a group of wines that will be pretty after the bottling but age well." Lardiere routinely eliminated about 20% of the juice via saignee following the '99 harvest; he is confident that this technique for concentrating the must removes only water.

Following a cool maceration lasting up to a week at the start of the harvest but more like three or four days for late-arriving fruit, the '98s spent anywhere from 28 to 37 days on their skins, with fermentation temperatures reaching as high as 40oC. Crop levels were small, and the wines have good color, said winemaker Jacques Lardiere. But following late malos that mostly ended in September, added Lardiere, "the wines are just beginning to mature, because no polymerization of tannins takes place until after the malos." Or, as director Pierre-Henri Gagey put it in November, "the wines are now going through a densification." "It's just a matter of time," said Lardiere. "Some of the '98s will be quite good, even if the high points are not as high as those of the last three vintages."x000D x000D x000D x000D In 1997, Jadot harvested its domain holdings late, allowing the grapes to lose some of their excess water following the early September rains. These '97s offer almost magical freshness of fruit for wines so rich and ripe; few of the top bottlings from Jadot's own vineyards show the roasted quality that characterizes so many wines from this vintage. Jacques Lardiere stepped up to the plate in '97 and whacked the ball about 500 feet.