Musky floral perfume along with lemon oil and honey scent Prieur's 2007 Meursault Santenots. Silken in texture, and with a palpable sense of underlying extract, this shares with this year's Clos de Mazeray a need to integrate slightly splintery as well as sweet notes from barrel into what seems an inherently fresh-fruited and chalk-tinged (and as such vintage-typical) wine. Will further personality also develop short-term, I wonder? 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

Nose of green raspberries, violet, and white fruits. Balanced and rich on the palate iwth a good minerality. Lots of power.