Orange and lemon zest, brown spices, honeysuckle, and iris mark the nose of Essa’s 2006 Meursault Vieilles Vignes, assembled from two complimentary sites. There is a pithy, piquant intensity on the palate here (contributed by a parcel bordering Puligny) with faint bitterness nicely woven into a cream-texture and persistently juicy, bright lemon and peach. This is rich, yet animated Meursault, possessing palpable density, but also with lift. In keeping with an extended track record at this address, I have no compunction recommending that one cellar this for up to a decade.
The estate of Michel Buisson – whose son-in-law Patrick Essa now takes the lead – crafts white Burgundies for the Riesling or Chenin-lover, offering clarity, refreshment, and minerality yet not stinting on richness or structure, and wines whose track record in the cellar is among the best of any Chardonnay-based wines in the world. Slow, vertical pressing, unhurried fermentation, largely non-new barrels passive lees contact (i.e. no stirring), and late (unfined, and usually lightly-filtered) bottling figure in the Buisson regimen. Although production is very small, some additional acreage will come on line (along with a completely renovated cellar) beginning in 2008. Predictably – and even though picking did not commence until September 22 – the 2006s here did not sacrifice clarity, refreshment, or mineral dimensions to the vintage’s ripeness or botrytis, and arrived at 13-13.25% alcohol. A portion of village Meursault tinged by rot and at 14% potential alcohol was sold off.
A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29; also imported by Scott Paul Wines, Carlton, OR; tel. (503) 852 7300
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