2012 Meursault Charmes

(13.7% natural alcohol with 3.6 grams per liter acidity): Pale yellow. Very ripe nose hints at orange zest, hazelnut and lees. Rich, broad, fat and sweet, with almost oily peach and soft citrus flavors. Doesn't have quite the cut or lift--or apparent minerality--of the best 2012 premier crus here but finishes with a distinctly firm edge.

The 2012 Meursault 1er Cru Charmes has a lively apple blossom and melon/dried pineapple-scented bouquet that unfolds in the glass. The palate is well balanced, harmonious with a slightly honeyed texture with a sensual, quite mellifluous finish. Very fine - but not quite in the same league as their best Premier Cru Meursaults.||Before heading back home after a week of blind tasting 2011s, my last day was spent chez Lucien Le Moine after Mounier advised that it was an appropriate time to taste his white. This is one grower whose advice I heed with respect to the timing of the visit. The extended time in barrel and minimal use of sulfur means that there is little point in tasting these wines in their primal state. “The white 2012s are the same combination as reds: low yields and accessibility, which was a trap. I think we are going to suffer when the 2012s are in the market,” he opined is his customary candid and forthright manner. “People will find them heavy and a bit over-ripe, like the 2009s were accused of. But this is because the whites were racked, sulfured and bottled too early. The key to the 2012s was the late malolactic. You know, our cellar was still doing alcoholic and malolactics last summer in 2013.” Lucien le Moine seems to be a divisive, micro-négoçiant as Mounir’s outgoing personality and outspoken views rub some fellow vignerons up the wrong way. But it is what is in the glass that counts and I was deeply impressed by the potential of these barrel samples. eRobertParker.com.October, 2014