2008 Puligny-Montrachet Sous le Puits

According to enologist Julien Desplans, Jean-Marie Guffens did very little batonnage in 2007 "to avoid getting buttery flavors owing to the high levels of malic acidity," and eventually sold off a lot of his wine, including all of his Puligny. Without much lees stirring, said Desplans, the wines tended to finish with more sweetness than they might otherwise have had. In 2008, he went on, acidity levels were higher across the board, but so were pHs and grape sugars (the latter by almost one percent). More lees stirring was necessary to "sweeten the mouth," by which I assume he meant to enhance textural richness rather than the actual impression of sugar. But, according to Desplans, Guffens also believes he got lower pHs by harvesting later, in spite of the risk of having to eliminate more rotten grapes, because there was less malic acidity in the grapes by then. No press wine was added to these cuvees, as pHs were already low enough, said Desplans. (A Peter Vezan selection; importers include The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL and Ideal Wines, Medford, MA)