The 2017 Chassagne-Montrachet Village is quite closed after its recent bottling, unfurling with a youthfully reserved bouquet of citrus zest, yellow orchard fruit and spices. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, with a delicately glossy attack, impressively racy acids and good tension at the core, concluding with a precise, mouthwatering finish. This should shine after a few years in the cellar.

An exception to the rule for Bouchard Cote d’Or village wines in incorporating purchased juice with estate and contract fruit, their 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet is prominently chalky, saline, and alkaline, as well as refreshingly citric. Its palpable sense of underlying extract, vivacity, and sappy persistence offer a delicious summary of its vintage’s virtues and of the care taken at this address with village level wines. It should remain satisfying for at least 4-5 years. Philippe Prost’s late-August starting date for the 2007 white harvest reflects not simply the enormous acreage over which Bouchard holds sway. (In fact, they can muster correspondingly large forces and their gargantuan facility with its battery of presses can handle the harvest in ten days if need be.) It is also a function of assiduous yield control that promotes ripening, and of a professed interest in capturing freshness and vivacity. Furthermore, picking extended for 18 days, until mid-September, and most of the estate’s top sites were brought in near the end. And with the exception of a Pouilly-Fuisse rendered from contract fruit, none of the 2007 whites here were chaptalized. Most came in a bit over 13% alcohol and – as Prost asserts and his wines testify – with excellent phenolic maturity. Prost prefers to avoid sulfuring the fruit or must, letting it darken from oxidation during its period of skin contact and settling because, in his view, not only the color but the flavors bounce back as soon as the juice starts fermenting, and the resulting wine is both more expressive and more stable. “You know,” he says by way of general commentary on the evolution of Bouchard vinification, “a few years ago we were too concerned to be clean and clinical” with the result that “the wines were closed,” especially in their youth. No one could level that charge at the wines now, even if some are subtle and understated. The question now – just as at other Burgundy addresses – is how white wines from the last several vintages will age. Among many recent changes made at Bouchard in the name (dare I interject, “hope”?) of reducing instances of premature oxidation and bottle variation are blanketing the assembled wines in nitrogen, a sophisticated new bottling protocol, and the use of Diam (specially treated composite) corks for village level wines and dense corks from Sardinia for crus. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6767

Bouchard’s 2006 Chassagne-Montrachet – assembled from eight different lots – smells penetratingly of honeysuckle and talcum. Possessed of considerable phenolic grip, it offers an ample sense of richness, mulled cider-like fruit character, a hint of textural oiliness, and refreshing hints of fresh lemon. It finishes with notes of apple and almond paste, and a very slight roughness. In keeping with what he says are his usual intuitions, Philippe Prost picked early – bringing in Chardonnay ahead of Pinot Noir for the first time at Bouchard since 1989 – so as to retain freshness as well as what he termed “the sense of minerality in a vintage of very ripe fruit. But in 1989,” he hastens to add, “yields were perhaps overly generous, whereas in 2006 they are quite reasonable.” The results are consistently impressive. New barrels are generally “seasoned” here through use in wines of lesser appellation (other portions of which are frequently raised in tank), as Prost prefers to employ second year barrels for most of his crus. Injections of inert gas at bottling are among the techniques being used to protect the young wines here from oxidation. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY

The apple-scented 2002 Chassagne-Montrachet is lush, suave, supple, and medium-bodied. Loads of apples and pears vie for the taster’s attention in its satiny-textured, lengthy character. Drink it over the next 3 years.