Vintus

Meursault "Perrières", Premier Cru

The Perrières premier cru covers 33 acres broken into five parcels on the upper slope of Meursault, between Blagny and Les Charmes. Perrières is considered universally to be the finest of the premiers crus of Meursault, with a finesse and complexity unequalled in the appellation. It takes its name from an old quarry, or “carrière”, which once furnished building stone to the village of Meursault  The Cardinal de Bernis, ambassador of Louis XV to the Vatican, once remarked, in defence of his indulgence in the wines of Perrières, “I would not wish my creator to see me grimace at the moment of communion."

As Mounir likes to say, the easiest way to explain the meaning of the world of minerality is through Meursault "Perrières".  If you don’t have saltiness in your mouth after tasting a wine, a sense of fleur de sel, it’s not "Perrières".  Liquid rock come to life.  Small white rocks, limestone in the vineyard.

• 2009 Vintage

   There is more talk and interest about 2009 in Burgundy than in any vintage since 2005.  Mounir Saouma has warned us to be careful, however.  He loves this vintage, and in fact believes it is the greatest he has seen in his two decades in Burgundy.   He believes the fruit had everything from the start, and the wines from the beginning were healthy and beautifully balanced.  The major issue was to understand and respect the wines, and avoid working them, since they already had everything they needed in superb balance.  Overly working the wines, he believes, resulted in a loss of freshness and delicacy.

    2009 is the first vintage at Lucien Le Moine that Mounir did not do any lees stirring whatsoever, and as usual he never racked the wines in their nearly two years in barrel.  He didn’t add sulfur until a few months before bottling, and yet his wines are still completely fresh; some whites he describes as even having a tint of green.  The Lucien Le Moine 2009s across the board are beautifully pure and focused, with the exquisite harmony of truly great wines.

   

  • "Initially shy nose opens to reveal very pure aromas of underripe plum, wild herbs and flinty crushed stone.  At once dense and weightless, with terrific precision and cut to its citrus zest and crushed stone flavors.  Best today on the explosive, sappy, rising finish, which saturates the palate with dusty minerality.  Very hard to spit!  Grand cru quality here." 92-95  Points International Wine Cellar

  • "The 2009 Meursault Perrieres is a gorgeous, finely-cut wine endowed with superb purity and delineation in a translucent expression of fruit. White peaches, pears, mint and wild flowers are some of the notes that wrap around the intense, mineral-laced finish. The Perrieres is generous, fleshy but also quite energetic. This is all polish and refinement. Anticipated maturity: 2014+."  92-94 Points Wine Advocate

  •  "A distinctly lactic and leesy nose precedes beautifully balanced, harmonious and chiseled, indeed even crystalline middle weight flavors that possess outstanding length and remarkable tension on the seriously mineral-driven finish. This isn't quite as complex as the Genevrières but it's finer and the class of a fine Perrières is clearly on display. A qualitative choice." 91-94 Points Burghound

• 2008 Vintage

  There is a big difference in how most people in Burgundy see 2008 and how Lucien Le Moine sees its 2008s.  In a typically unique perspective, Mounir Saouma believes 2008 is a great vintage in Burgundy, one of the greatest of the decade.  2008 was the third in a series of historically normal vintage conditions.  Over the last hundred years, on average the rainiest month in Burgundy has been June and the driest month has been September; rain in the summer is common, occurring more than half the time.  The light, fine skin of Pinot Noir benefits from the freshness in the summer, needs it, and it helps the fat Chardonnay on its way to maturity as well.  The idea that only the “modern” vintage – hot and dry – can be great is a big issue for Mounir.

  In June 2008, within a given week rain always alternated with hot sunny periods.  The results were small bunches of grapes that were getting mature while keeping acidity, and slowly ripening.  Ultimately, there was a naturally low yield, an excellent sign, with 20% fewer grapes than a normal year, providing sweet fruit and high levels of tannin.  Very importantly, Mounir believes that in recent times Burgundy has lost its simplicity to some extent – when you tasted the grapes in 2008, there was no issue with rot.  Most people looked at their vineyards, were terrified of the rot and pressed very lightly to get clean juice, only did short macerations with not a lot of lees, didn’t stir, and then fined or filtered to bottle clean wines. 

  Lucien Le Moine did the opposite.  They pressed hard, bringing a lot of lees into the wine.  To balance the high acidity and some of the unripe bunch areas due to the cool weather, they topped with fine lees every ten days instead of topping with wine.  They did not stir, and so the lees would take a full week to fall to the bottom of the barrel, slowly imparting complexity and richness.  For about five years, Lucien Le Moine has been the last producer in Burgundy to bottle, and they were again with the 2008 vintage.  Malolactic Fermentation was not as late as usual because of the lees that was added, and finished in April/May instead of June/July.  Lucien Le Moine has never never acidified or de-acidified, so while some people de-acidified 2008, they didn’t touch the wines, and watched them over the summer become sweeter, fatter and more balanced, more attractive.  They started bottling around May 2010, and finished beginning of October 2010, after the harvest of 2010. 

  Looking at surrounding vintages, the 2005 is ageable, full of body, massive, tannic, with high acidity.  2006 has almost late harvest flavor, very deep, beautiful maturity, and nice acidity.   2007 is transparent, the perfect example of terroir in Burgundy, but will not age perhaps as long as 2006.  The 2008s are going to be the year for people who care about Burgundy.  They will be appreciated the next two-three years, for their very fresh fruit and balanced bodies.  Then they will sleep for a few years, but not like 2005s which are so big they will need a long time to awaken.  The 2008s will come back as classic wines of Burgundy, but not in a spicy, sous-bois manner; they will be traditional, but have a little bit of flashy fruit.  A very particular combination. 

  Lastly, the particularity of the Lucien Le Moine 2008s – a lot of wines are cloudy due to the lees; make sure to stand them up before decanting. 
   

  • "An ultra elegant, restrained and notably cool white flower and citrus-suffused nose merges seamlessly into fine, precise and intensely stony flavors that explode onto a bone dry finish that, interestingly, exhibits both a vaguely saline and noticeable iodine character. The nose isn't at all like Chablis but the finish could pass for one. A knock out that is built to age and should provide at least 6 to 8 years of upside development." 91-94 Points Burghound

  • "A smoky white, yet full of floral, juniper, lime, toasty hazelnut and mineral aromas and flavors. Lean, toned and very complex, with a long aftertaste of lime, smoke and jasmine tea. There's lovely harmony, though this needs time. Best from 2013 through 2023. 20 cases imported. –BS" 94 Points Wine Spectator

• 2007 Vintage

  As Mounir Saouma says, “2007 saw a fresh summer – when we say fresh summer, we mean well-balanced rain and sunny days.   There were cool but not cold days, days with some rain and sun, but not exaggerated either way.  And you see in the wines there is beautiful acidity, but not as much as 2008, and nice sweetness, but not as much as 2006.” 

   

  This character of mid-way but not extreme in many areas resulted in wines that took a long time to reveal their nature.  “The wines started fruity and the tannins were firm, and slowly we started seeing a kind of melding between sweetness and acidity after the malolactic a year later; we started seeing the real character of the wines after 14 months.  

   

  This development of the vintage is the reason that 2007 was the latest bottling Lucien Le Moine has ever done, and why they were the last producer in all of Burgundy to bottle.  Typically Lucien Le Moine starts bottling in January or February; in 2007 they started in February, but the majority of bottling took place from May to September.  Mounir aged all his 2007 wines on their lees, without sulfur, and never racked.   

   

  Mounir compares 2007 and 2006 a lot; they will both be vintages that are approachable and will last, and their technical numbers are similar, but they are physically and aromatically in completely different worlds.  “2006 is more about sweetness and for some people a heavier character; 2007 is more about freshness.  We will enjoy 2007, but it doesn’t take anything from the aging. 

   

  The whites are beautifully clean, in some cases showing an exotic character up-front, but they also have wonderful complexity and substance; like the reds, and as a general characterization of the vintage, they are wines of tremendous freshness and profundity.

  • "Pale yellow. Yellow peach, linden flower, menthol and wet stone on the nose, with a high-pitched topnote of lavender. Suave and ripe in the mouth, but with outstanding cut thanks to its strong spine of acidity and rocky minerality. Wonderfully high-pitched, refined Meursault with an explosive stony back end. Grand cru quality." 94+? Points International Wine Cellar

  • "The two barrels of Le Moine 2007 Meursault Perrieres smells of a meadow-like profusion of flowers, crushed stone, and lemon oil. A pointed piquancy supplies counterpoint to rich nuttiness, which is in turn complimented by suggestions of ginger and brown spice. Polished and well-knit, its mineral dimension re-emerges with ineffable complexity in an impressively gripping, long finish. This can be expected to justify a decade or more of cellaring." 93-94+ Points Wine Advocate

  • "Like the Caillerets this too borders on the mineral reduction often seen in the wines of Chablis with a floral and lemony nose that is followed by ultra detailed, energetic, delineated and almost painfully intense flavors that also seem to be extracted from liquid rock, all wrapped in a hugely long and palate staining finish. Terrific." 91-94 Points Burghound, “Sweet Spot”