2007 Saint Veran Lieu (Inter)dit

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)

Jean-Marie Guffens told me he tried to make "fresh, natural, unwoody wines" in 2007. Potential alcohol levels were around 13% and no chaptalization was necessary. "The malic acid went down and the tartaric went up. The freshness of the wines comes from tartaric acidity, not lactic. The wines will be pleasant and minerally, like the '04s." Guffens went on to say that many '07s from fruit harvested too early are quite high in malic acidity and are likely to oxidize quickly. "When the fresh fruit goes away, the wines will go lactic, like Camembert, because malic acidity is unstable." (A Peter Vezan selection; importers include The Stacole Company, Boca Raton, FL; North Berkeley Wines, Berkeley, CA; and Ideal Wines, Medford, MA)