From another Prieur monopole, just beyond their winery, the 2005 Meursault Clos de Mazeray offers bright, fresh aromas and flavors of both red and black raspberry. A distinctly wet stone component lends some gravitas, and a distilled fruit overtone emerges with airing. This infectiously juicy wine can probably trace its prominent, lip-smacking fruit acidity (if not perhaps its distinct minerality) to the deeper, more water-retentive (and thus in 2005 less vine-stressing) soil of this site.
Nearly all bottlings from this negociant – on an upward path since the influx of Rodet capital in the early ‘90s – in fact originate in the Domaine Jacques Prieur. Martin Prieur and his team have striven to capture purity of fruit through gentle extraction, although for my taste I found some of their 2005s overly confectionary due to the influence of toasty new wood on already very sweetly ripe raw material. After malo – which was generally quite late here this year – the wines were sulfured but not yet racked.
Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700.