2000 Meursault Village

Winemaker Jacques Lardiere told me that the 2000s have turned out to possess a better balance of fruit and structure than he thought at the outset, and he believes that the vintage sound level of dry extract is the explanation. Like a number of his colleagues, Lardiere believes that vines in Puligny-Montrachet were particularly favored in 2000, describing these as his "strongest" wines in 2000. Grape sugars were high in 2000, so most of the crus were chaptalized only about a half-degree. Wines develop very slowly in this cold cellar, with the malolactic fermentations typically finishing very late and the bottling taking place during the second spring. (For this reason, and the fact that these wines are shipped late, I will wait until next year to report on the 2001 whites.) Lardiere routinely blocks the secondary fermentations in a portion of his barrels to preserve freshness. The techniques we use are essentially to work on the mouth, the texture, of our wines," explained Lardiere. It always on the mouth that you'll find our wine; the aromas will come with bottle aging."