2015 Anne Boisson, Meursault A.C., White Burgundy, France.
A totally unknown producer for me and an exciting discovery, especially after learning more about the winery and the care that went into crafting this beautiful Meursault, which shows the richness and supple roundness of the vintage as it begins to mature in the bottle with lush yellow fruits, wet stone and hazelnut leading the way on the ripe palate. This 2015 gains a bit of structure and mineral as it opens up and while not high in natural acidity it is lovely balanced and is drinking with lots of pleasing complexity, including clove spice, lemon curd and apple butter notes. I had this succulent Meursault with lobster tail dipped in butter and it was a fantastic pairing and one I certainly hope to enjoy again in the future, as I will keep my eyes open for upcoming releases from Boisson. The Boisson family Domaine in Meursault is a total of 8.5 hectares and makes wines under three different labels, of which Anne’s is one, and the vineyards are farmed to organic practices, though not certified. These highly coveted parcels are divided up between Bernard Boisson and his two children, Pierre and Anne, and although the wines are labelled individually as Boisson-Vadot, Pierre Boisson and Anne Boisson, interestingly they make the wines altogether in their cellar with no differences between them. I was impressed with the quality and depth in this basic Meursault, in fact it gave a Domaine des Comte Lafon Clos de la Barre, opened at the same dinner a real run for its money! A night of hedonistic excess made me, not quite forget this wine, but it did get put in a file of notes for later posting and I just recently uncovered them, an oversight I am correcting now.
The Anne Boisson Meursault is from the family’s hand tended sites and is a blend of most of their best parcel with very traditional winemaking employed and the hand harvested grapes were very seriously sorted in the vineyard and again at the Domaine before going into vats for primary fermentation. The Boisson wines are aged in mostly used French oak barrels for close to 18 months, or sometimes even longer if the vintage demands it. New oak is kept to the minimum at the Domaine and from what I am reading it can be up to 20% on the Meursault bottlings, but I can see not overt wood accents on this 2015 vintage and again the wine reveals plenty of steely/flinty tones and underlying class. When sipped with the magic lobster tail I found that instead of turning flabby this slightly honeyed and lightly golden 2015 Anne Boisson Meursault became more elegant, taut, chalky saline and even perked up aromatically with delicate white flowers coming through. I am looking forward to trying some new vintages of Anne Boisson and excited to try her Aligoté as well. I have noticed that the Boisson Vadot offerings have only been available outside France since the 2011 vintage, making it more understandable as to why I had never heard of them, and that this tiny producer was more than happy just to sell their wines to a collection of French mailing list clients, so I am happy they are now imported to the states. This 2015 still has a good life ahead, especially with its concentration and excellent mouth feel, but I suggest enjoying its immediate gratification. This bottling is a pretty good value, in white Burgundy, especially a Meursault, if you can find it, there is also a higher end and more limited offering called Meursault “Sous la Velle” that is more readily available over here, which has me itching to try.
($60 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive