1997 Domaine Blain-Gagnard Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

The 1997 Criots-Batard-Montrachet is harvested at 14.1% natural potential alcohol (the bottled wine has 13.9% alcohol because the "angel's share" evaporates). This wine has a sublime nose that combines elegance with sur-maturite. Scents of sweet pineapples are intertwined with tea leaves and sun-baked stones. It has an oily texture, a medium-to-full body, and an intense flavor profile composed of chalk, white fruits, minerals, and toasty oak. Its impressive finish is extremely long, if a touch warm. This super wine should be at its best between 2001 and 2008. Blain's goal is to have his Chardonnay vines yield between 45 and 50 hectoliters/hectare (30-35h/h for his reds). He performs a light pressing with a pneumatic press to reduce the quantity of bourbes (gross lees), then drops the temperature of the musts to 12-14 degrees Celsius before transferring them to barrels (25-30% new) for the fermentation and aging processes. All of the estate's wines are fined, filtered, and bottled at the domaine. Jean-Marc Blain told me that he is against the acidification of wines but was compelled to do it to his 1998 reds as they had dangerously high pHs. Blain describes his 1997s as "pleasurable and delicate whites, they are refined, elegant, and have excellent ripeness. They should be drunk over the next ten years." I found them to be extremely well-made, with the vintage's tell-tale ripeness and density yet with better structure than in most of the 1997s I tasted from the Cote de Beaune. Other 1997s tasted: Chassagne-Montrachet Clos St. Jean (87). Importer: Seagram Chateau & Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel (212) 572-7725.