1999 Montrachet Grand Cru

Mounir Saouma, the Lebanese winemaker who owns this small negociant operation, describes 2000 as a very good year for white wine in Burgundy, but still a vintage of paradox, for several reasons. "First, we picked the hillsides before the flat land," he explained. "We also picked the reds before the whites. And the wines done in year-old oak taste more oaky today than those done in new barrels." The fruit in 2000 was very ripe but did not have a perfect acid balance, as '99 did, according to Saouma, who raises his wines in a tiny cellar in Beaune. "Also, some 2000s finished very dry, with too little residual sugar, and these wines tend to taste dry. Wines with around two grams per liter of residual sugar tend to be more successful in this year." In fact, Saouma added, additions of SO2 would have had a tendency to accentuate this dryness; happily, the vintage in general was less oxidative in character than '99. The young 2000 whites were tricky to taste, as Saouma uses very little sulfur and the cellar was a bit warm. (Jeffrey M. Davies/Signature Selections; imported by T&C Distributors, West Nyack, NY; Adventures in Wine, Daly City, CA; and Wines Unlimited, New Orleans, LA)