2000 Montrachet Grand Cru

Mounir Saouma, who made just 15 barrels of white wine (and 45 of red) in 2001, is quite forthcoming on the character of recent vintages. The very uneven ripeness of the grapes in 2001 meant that it was necessary to press very slowly, even at the risk of getting more acidity. I kept the maximum possible lees and delayed the onset of the malolactic fermentations because the wines were still hard in early winter." So at the time of my late spring visit, only about 20% of Saouma barrels had finished their malos. There may be stuff ready to be bottled in other cellars, but wines that were rushed through their secondary fermentations may still have some bitterness," Saouma noted.

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)