1998 Mazis-Chambertin 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.