Loads of minerals are found in the nose of the 2004 Macon-Villages. Medium-bodied and silky-textured, it is a spicy, well-balanced wine with almond and white fruit flavors. It will be bottled after the 2006 harvest. Drink it between 2007 and 2011. Visiting the Valette family, whose home/estate is perched on Chaintre’s hillside affording views of the Saone valley (all the way to the Alps), is always a fascinating adventure. Ever since the family patriarch, Gerard Valette, left the local coop, he and his family have been fiercely independent, bucking both viticultural and winemaking traditions. For example, when all their neighbors had finished harvesting the 2003s, the Valettes were waiting for the fruit to be ripe, and when all their neighbors had bottled and shipped their 2004s, the Valettes’ were still undergoing elevage. Sadly, this outstanding, iconoclastic estate, whose offerings grace the finest restaurant wine lists in France, is no longer imported into the United States.No American importer.

The aromatically demure 2002 Macon-Villages is light to medium-bodied, detailed, and exhibits good depth to its nicely-textured, pear-flavored personality. It should be drunk over the next 2 years.