2018 Anne Boisson, Meursault, les Genevrieres 1x750ml

Robert Parker 94

The 2018 Meursault 1er Cru Genevrieres is showing very well, bursting with aromas of orange oil, pear, pastry cream and honeycomb. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and textural, it’s layered and enveloping, with a beautifully seamless, complete profile, concluding with a penetrating finish. Only two barrels were produced, so finding any will be a challenge. As ever, the bearded Bernard Boisson presided over my annual tasting in the usual, refreshingly old-school manner, offering splashes from a variety of bottles, some open for several days and some opened for my benefit. As readers will remember, Bernard’s holdings have been entirely divided between his son Pierre and daughter Anne. On this visit, Boisson pere explained that in fact Pierre and Anne operate separately though cooperatively (Pierre taking care of all the tractor work in the vineyards) and vinify in their own way though the two labels’ styles are undeniably more similar than different. As I understood it, Bernard himself acts as a sort of unlikely business manager for the duo, hosting tastings and managing the wines’ distribution. As I’ve written before, 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 negociants. With Pierre’s arrival at the domaine some 15 years ago, that changed dramatically: The domaine has returned, as Bernard puts it, to doing things as they were done in his grandfather’s era. That means earlier harvesting, little debourbage, long sur lie elevage ranging from 19 to 22 months and restrained use of new oak up to 30%, largely from Saint-Romain’s Tonnellerie Gillet, recognizable for the toasty, nutty patina that it imparts (Gillet barrels also dominate chez Niellon in Chassagne-Montrachet). The entire production is now bottled without filtration under natural cork. [William Kelley, 01/20/2022]

Anticipated maturity: 2021-2038