Lardiere warned that the grapes were in a precarious situation and could be damaged by bad weather. If the weather cooperates in the next two weeks, Chardonnays could also turn out fine, although the Pinot Noirs seemed in a better position at the opening of the harvest. But we could have a very pretty surprise. The people in the early-picking Macon area in southern Burgundy already believe their '97s are better than their '96s. A winemaker once told me to let my wine sit for a year to give it time to recover from bottling and shipping.
Some wines can take months to recover from bottling, which is an even greater shock to a wine.
Others sail right through anything. Eight to 12 months does seem excessive, however, but if you have enough wine to drink, it's not a bad practice. Except for wines that need to be drunk when they are extremely youthful, most higher-priced wines do benefit from at least that much aging.