2019 Henri Germain Meursault le Limozin

The 2019 Meursault Le Limozin is superb, mingling aromas of pear, yellow orchard fruit, almond paste and pastry cream with hints of white flowers and mint. Medium to full-bodied, textural and precise, it combines impressive mid-palate volume with terrific cut. This will be well worth seeking out.

The more Germain wines I drink, the more I admire them. Several years ago, I described this as Meursualt’s most underrated address, and I can only repeat that today because the wines are so good, as the world certainly seems to be taking more and more notice of what is going on at this discreet, family-owned domaine. Jean-François Germain reported that yields were below average, even if he was largely spared by the frost, ranging from a low 25 hectoliters per hectare to a correct—even relatively generous—50 hectoliters per hectare. The musts’ pHs, he added, were notably lower than in 2018. After sampling these superb 2019s, some of the finest Côte de Beaune whites I tried in my three months of tasting, I couldn’t resist opening a 2018 from my cellar—and based on its showing, and despite its comparatively open-knit structure, I really implore readers to let this vintage unwind undisturbed in the cellar for a year or two, as they will be richly rewarded with additional depth and texture.

Since this seven-hectare estate remains comparatively under the radar, it’s worth reiterating that viticulture here is organic (though uncertified) and vinification decidedly traditional, the wines spending two winters in barrel on the lees, if possible without racking and almost invariably without bâtonnage. In the domaine’s cold cellars, alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are protracted, but Germain is content to let the wines take their time. Percentages of new oak are decidedly moderate (contrary to whatever one might read elsewhere), and derive from Meursault’s Tonnellerie Damy. The resulting wines are concentrated but incisive, with fleshy fruit but firm structural bones that demand time in the cellar. In the last decade, the style has become a little less austere and reductive, but the domaine remains old-fashioned in the best sense.