1998 Batard-Montrachet

At the time of my visit, Jean-Marie Guffens had recently decided to sell off a good portion of his 1998 Verget wine to the negoce(including all his Saint-Romain and parts of cuvees of Saint-Aubin and Meursault) because he did not think their quality would justify the prices he would have to charge his regular customers. And the negociants were still paying a huge premium for wine from this vintage, although Guffens hastened to point out that the wines he sold off "I vinified for free." "It not a bad year, just too expensive," Guffens explained; "1998 is proof that Guffens is very intelligent but not a magician." The grapes had been expensive to begin with-when they were available at all. Guy Robin would not sell Guffens any Chablis Valmur, and Guffens passed on Chassagne-Montrachet La Romanee due to the very high price asked for grapes. Some of his suppliers asked Guffens to buy must rather than grapes, but he refused, as he would not have been able to separate the various juices at the pressing-essential for his subsequent work with the lees. Purchased quantities of a number of his lieux-dits were so tiny that Guffens declassified them to make village blends. Guffens did a longer debourbage than usual in '98 ("When you saw the lees in '98, you were glad you didn't use them"), then stirred the lees every three weeks or so "only to freshen them." The wines were all to have been racked before the heat of summer. While Guffens is souring on the pricing situation on the Cote de Beaune (grape prices for chardonnay crus have more than tripled since 1992, while his retail prices have barely doubled), he is bullish on the south of France, where he has a major venture underway in the Luberon. In addition to having recently purchased the Chateau des Tourettes, situated at an altitude of about 400 meters, he will also introduce a negociant line of wines called Verget du Sud, the best of them based on grenache and syrah. Among the standouts from my early tastings of '98s are the Grand Vin de Chateau des Tourettes, a sweet, sappy wine that spent a full month on its skins and boasts 14.4% alcohol; this wine may yet be strengthened by the addition of some fat, smoky 42-year-old grenache (superripe aromas of crystallized berries and black cherry; superb lushness in the mouth; strong impression of rocky terroir and big, peppery tannins). The property's second wine, Les Petites Tourettes, will rate as a terrific value in the $10 range. (Fruit of the Vine, New York, NY; also a Peter Vezan Selection; importers include Ideal Wines, Medford, MA; Barrique Wine Company, Chicago, IL; The Wine Company, Minneapolis, MN; North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA; Estate Wines Ltd., San Rafael, CA; also available through Patrick Lesec Selections, imported by The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL and Bacchus Importers, Baltimore, MD.)