Prieur's 2007 Beaune Clos de la Feguine (from one of their two monopole vineyards) offers a consistently tight, bright, stony, saline, and citric personality. Aromatically it is rather shut-down, again making one wonder whether it isn't simply in need of short-term bottle evolution. But there is a sense of seamlessness of flavors here to match the wine's sleek, refined texture that was missing in the Mazeray and Santenots bottlings at this stage. And there is a palpable sense of extract that should help focus the flavors and make this fascinating to follow over at least the next 4-5 years.
Oenologist Nadine Gublin did not begin harvesting the Prieur Chardonnay until September 10, finishing a week later. The wines (with the exception of the Montrachet) all weighed-in between 13-13.5% alcohol and none were chaptalized. Malo-lactic fermentations were slow, the wines were inexpressive early, hence Gublin elected to bottle them 2-4 months later than usual (using a new bottling system). As a result, I have only tasted the best of them as assembled in tank. A comparison of the 2004s side-by-side was fascinating, and among other things bore out Gublin's assertion that -the big difference between 2004 and 2007 was the presence of over-ripeness and of enormous heterogeneity of ripeness- in the former. After the completion of renovations that were ongoing when I visited, the whites in a gravity-flow facility will be vinified entirely separately from the reds, and subject to sophisticated air purification and temperature controls of both tanks and cellar. New tractors and personnel will be on hand from 2010 to assist a transition to organic viticulture. In all these respects, the idealism and ambition exhibited at this estate are formidable.
Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700
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