2007 Meursault Les Luchets

More purity in 2007 than in 2008. Restrained on the nose. Delicate lemon. Really refined and pure and so, so long. Very fresh and sustained. (JH)

From neighboring to Vireuils, Roulot’s 2007 Meursault Luchets displays a briny, nutty, faintly sweaty and reductive nose. Explosively bright and citric on the palate, and with a sense of density you can strain through your teeth, this at the same time this introduces a faintly lactic note, and finishes with a persistence of briny mineral character adumbrated in the nose. My suspicion is that this just needs a short time in bottle to gain in clarity and for its parts to integrate. It certainly looks to have at least half a dozen years’ potential. Jean-Marc Roulot as usual racked his 2007s back into tank one year after their early September harvest, then let them rest on their fine lees there for 5-6 months before bottling, believing – as did so many growers – that the 2007s needed time to evolve before bottling. He considers himself to have had an advantage this year due to his predominance of northerly, high-elevation sites that benefited from breezes to ward off rot, and especially able to benefit from the north wind that brought general drying and concentration at the beginning of September. Finished alcohols hover around 12.5, “and lower degrees are no handicap as far as I am concerned,” opines Roulot. Still, he acknowledges that perhaps he might have done well to hold off a few more days with the harvest in certain parcels. Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524-1524

Slightly reduced flinty nose. Then richer and lower in acidity than the Meix Chavaux, with an early harmoniousness to the flavors of yellow fruits and orange. Fleshy more than really fat, in a typical Roulot way. Finishes with lovely persistence. Half of these vines are 50 years old.