2008 Meursault Les Narvaux

This address in Chassagne-Montrachet is quickly becoming one of my go-to stops for chewy, rich white Burgundy that appears to have real staying power. Pierre-Yves Colin says that 2009 reminds him of a great classic vintage of the '80s-"a year like '85 or '89. The wines have a lot of body and richness but also a lot of white flowers-and almost too much fruit. They're textured but also fine and high-pitched. It's also a vintage with a rather fragile balance, not a vintage to push. And it's easy to make boring wines in 2009." He went on to explain that the wines need to be worked with oxygen. He had already racked his wines with air, but had put them back in the barrels with all their lees. They're very concentrated wines, yet Colin admits to having made the full permitted yields. Natural alcohols ranged from 12.3% to 13.1% and Colin chaptalized most of his wines lightly to extend the fermentations and facilitate integration of the oak. For his 2008s, Colin decided to prevent the last 20% of the malolactic fermentations from occurring; he racked and blended his various wines, then put them back in barrel with an SO2 addition. The reason for this approach? He found a huge difference in the wines before and after the malos, and he didn't think the post-malo wines were high-pitched enough. Since they began without much tartaric acidity in 2008, he did little or no batonnage. Colin describes the wines as "slight now but also round and fruity. They remind me of the good 2001s." (A Daniel Johnnes Selection; imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA)