The Wines

A frosty spring:

2021 will probably remain one of the smallest harvest in Burgundy’s history.

The end of the 2021 winter was characterised by heat records during a Summer end of March, making the buds of our vines open far too early. The buds were severely frosted between April 7th and April 10th by a mass of cold polar air and by snow and temperatures of up to -6 degrees.

Despite the winegrowers’ hard work to warm up the vines with candles, windmills and even helicopters, the cold was too intense. Only the latest plots, essentially Pinot Noir from the lower slopes, were saved.

Thus, from its beginning, 2021 was made to be an extraordinary vintage.

An equally difficult summer.

As the last year of our transition to organic winegrowing, 2021 was a real test of our ability to withstand bad weather. From July to mid-August, almost permanent humidity put our equipment and our winegrowers to the test in order to contain mildew and then powdery mildew, which progressively spread over all our plots, leading to a significant risk of losing foliage and the harvest.

One or two copper and sulphur treatments per week were necessary, because they’ve been immediately washed away by the rains. Also, from mid-July, all the vines were thinned out in order to expose the grapes to the sun and slow down the diseases.

Finally, at the end of August, the good weather came back and we were finally able to look forward to a more calm end to the harvest. The ripening period is, after all, the moment that determines the quality of a vintage! September was marked by mild weather with some rain that triggered a few outbreaks of rot. Leaf removal continues in order to reach optimal ripeness in all our plots.

A northern harvest at last!

We start the harvest on September 23rd, more than 100 pickers walk through our vineyards beginning with some plots where a severe sorting is necessary in the vineyards and then in the cellar to keep only the best. We quickly arrived in our beautiful crus of Gevrey-Chambertin and Marsannay where the grapes had taken on a magnificent bluish colour. The ripeness is beautiful, skins with silky tannins and beautiful fruit expressions.

The harvest ended at the beginning of October, and the vinification has already progressed well in the cellar. The colour takes a long time to extract, but the aromas are already expressing themselves wonderfully. The smooth tannins and the low acidity already give very round and greedy wines.

Tasting comment

Fine wines, finaly. After devatting and a few days of decanting, the wines are put into barrels to continue their malolactic fermentation. This starts in December and ends in January. The wines win in roundness and the structure is already very melted. What is most surprising is the aromatic quality of 2021, all the fruits are present, from the most acidic to the most candied, associated with a very beautiful vegetal nobility and enhanced by magnificently supple and accessible tannins. In 2021, we return to wines of finesse without excess of substance or alcohol, a style that once characterised the nobility of Burgundy.

It is certain that the wines of 2021 will be a gourmet delight in their youth and will certainly be able to evolve magnificently in the decade to come.