Pierre Boisson Meursault　2017

The 2017 Meursault Les Criots bursts with aromas of citrus oil, ripe pears, blanched almonds and wheat toast. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, layered but tensile, its satiny attack segueing into a bright, focused core. Boisson produced six barrels of this new cuvée, which was formerly assembled with Les Perchots to make up the domaine's Meursault blend: both lieux-dits are located outside the village below Les Santenots where the soils are deep but gravelly.

Bernard Boisson presided, as usual, over my annual visit to his family's cellars, but I tasted only one wine bearing his Boisson-Vadot label, for which 2016 is the last vintage. His holdings have now been entirely divided between his son Pierre and daughter Anne, who work together in the vineyards and cellar (readers will find all the family's wines reviewed under their own entries in this report). As I wrote last year, in his day, Bernard Boisson was one of the village's latest harvesters, and his wines only spent a year on the lees, with much of the production sold to the négociants. With Pierre's arrival at the domaine some 15 years ago, that has changed dramatically: the domaine has returned, as Bernard puts it, to do things as they were done in his grandfather's era. That means early harvesting, little débourbage, long sur-lie élevage ranging from 19 to 22 months and restrained use of new oak—up to 30%, largely from Saint-Romain's Tonnellerie Gillet. The entire production is now bottled without filtration. The Boissons' Bourgogne Blanc, Auxey-Duresses Les Cloux, Meursault Les Criots and Meursault Les Grands Charrons are all bottled under Pierre's label.