THE WINES OF 2003 IN THE CELLAR
Capturing that intense fruitiness… custom-made maturations!
Maturation of the 2002
wines in brief
Maturation was expected to last longer,
but was shortened by several months: the
summer heat warmed the cellars more
than the usual and the wines had thus to
be bottled earlier at the end of August –
right in the middle of the early harvests!
First in line were the three whites
commonly found at the top of the pecking
order: Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet La
Corvée des Vignes and one of our
monopoles, Vougeot Clos du Prieuré.
These were followed by another series in
October: Beaune Montée Rouge, Prieuré
Rouge and Côte de Beaune Les Pierres
Blanches (white). Bottling of the
remainding wines went on until the
end of February.
Last to be bottled were the usual suspects:
Pommard Les Petits Noizons, Nuits-SaintGeorges Premier Cru Les Damodes and
most of the grands crus. Finally,
we finished with our old dear Clos Blanc
and Corton-Charlemagne.
These wines are now available.
♦ d u D O M A I N E D E L A VO U G E R A I E
An unusual vintage deserves an unu sual
maturation… and even though malolactic
fermentation is not yet com p l ete , we alre ady know
that the first reds will be bottled before the summer
– an exceptional situation!
Pascal and Jacques describe them as ‘a s tonishing,
brilliant; they explode with fruit… we’ve never seen
wines like these before!’.
♦
Given such perfect person a l i tyand magnificent wines,
the main con cern at pre s ent is to work out ways of
capturing this intense, unique fruitiness for
consumers tasting the wine for the first time in two
years’ time, or earlier, to ensure that they discover it
in all its astonishing intensity! This indu l gent,
su bl i m e , ra re fru i tiness wi ll make tru ly rem a rk a ble
wines… and Pascal intends to preserve this magical
fruitiness at any cost!
And yet, de s p i te this, the wines do provi de an ech o
of t h eir terroi rs , with fairly disti n ctive styles but an
ut terly su rprising, e x u berant fruitiness wh i ch differs
in subtle ways from the 2002.
♦
La lettre
N°10. WINTER, 2003-2004
♦ NEWS FROM THE
THE SPIRIT OF W I N E
VINES
FROM NOVEMBER TO EARLY
Dear friends,
MARCH: A PAUSE FOR PRUNING!
Pascal Marchand
It is of key importance to preserve this fruitiness, there are so many metamorphosis a wine is submitted to in
its evo luti on… For this re a s on , bottling wi ll be early, and after an initial spell in the cell a r, a few wines have
alre ady been iden tified as po tential candidates before the su m m er, in late May / e a rly June. For example, the
com munal appell a ti on s : Beaune La Montée Ro u ge, G evrey-Ch a m bertin La Ju s ti ce , G evrey - Ch a m bertin Le s
Evocelles, the Vo u geot Clos du Prieuré mon opole and Beaune Premier Cru Clos du Roi . This will then be
followed by another batch for bottling before the harvest, t h en another before the end of the year, three or four
months earlier than usual!
♦
As for the whites, the plan is to bottle them just before the next harvest – a more traditional approach!
D O M A I N E D E L A VO U G E R A I E
P R E M E AU X - 2 1 7 0 0 N U I T S - S A I N T - G E O R G E S
T E L : 0 3 8 0 6 2 4 8 2 5 FA X : 0 3 8 0 6 1 2 5 4 4
w w w. d o m a i n e del avo u g er a i e . c o m
At this end of a clem en t ,
damp winter, which saw the
alternati on of cold and a
to u ch of s n ow with several
chaotic su n ny spells, the
acti on has now turn ed to the
cellar. The 2002 wines had less matura ti on time than expected ,
accel era ted by the earl i er heatwave, and the last of them have
just been bottled. Some have been filtered, but this is unlikely
to set a preceden t ; discover why and how. And now, with these
exquisite, very well-balanced wines out of the door, we turn
our attention to the maturation of the unusual year that was
2003. It is time to consider the unique decisions which need
to be taken to capt u re this ut terly exceptional fruit! In the
vines, the wi n ter tasks, pruning and ground work were guided
by the calendar and the moon cycles. L a s t ly, here are a few
tasting suggestions for an enjoyable Spring!
♦
Fa m i lle Boisset, Pascal Ma rchand, Estate Ma n a ger, Bern a rd Zi to,
Vi n eyard Ma n a ger and the wh ole team of Le Domaine de la Vou gera i e .
WINES FOR SEASON
Gevrey-Chambertin
LA JUSTICE 2001
Very dense ruby colour.
Strawberry and raspberry
nose developing into spicier,
almost smoky notes and
menthol touches. Superb in
the mouth. Ripe, fleshy
tannins envelope a healthy
blackcurrant-tinged
substance. The finish goes
on for ever, making a
wonderful accompaniment
for a leg of venison in
grand veneur sauce.
♦ GENTLE FILTRATION
FOR SOME
♦
2002 WINES
BOTTLING OF THE 2002
WINE IS COMPLETE!
♦ THE WINES OF 2003 IN
THE CELLAR
CAPTURING THAT INTENSE FRUITINESS…
CUSTOM-MADE MATURATIONS!
Beaune
Pommard
2001
Les Petits Noizons 2001
Pale, sparkling golden colour.
Nose refined with almond scents
developing into fresh pear notes.
Full in the mouth, with plenty
of richness, cloaked in a
superb acidity.
The woodiness fits in
perfectly; great volume with
distinction. Drink as an
accompaniment to a fried
bass fillet or scallops.
Deep ruby colour with violet
reflections. Notes of liquorice,
humus and most notably a
subtle touch of truffle – always
the sign of a great terroir.
Superb in the mouth, with a
rich attack and ripe tannins
envelopping a wine with very
pure blueberry aromas. Long,
finish. A great wine to
accompany a prime beef fillet cut.
N EWS
FROM
NOVEMBER TO EARLY MARCH. A PAUSE FOR PRUNING!
Autumn was fairly ra i ny – although not enough
to make good the water deficit from the dry
summer – and we performed little work on the
s oi l . D u ring this wi n tery peri od , the main task
in the vines is pruning (wh i ch is carri ed out on ly
if there is no rain) to avoid wood diseases. Ideally,
this is done on ‘fruit and flower’ days which are
the most favoura ble on the bi odynamic calendar.
♦
Unfort u n a tely, Decem ber and Ja nu a ry were
very damp, mild months, leaving us little over
ten or so days for pruning. The first two weeks
of February were particularly mild. In the first
days of the month, Bernard Zito even observed
a small amount of vine bleeding, indicating
that the sap was already starting to come out…
This unusually clement weather even caused
vegetation to re-start, and some almond trees
were on the verge of flowering… This mildness
Gentle filtration for some
2002 wines
allowed work to be put in on the soil, with use
of a horse in most parcels.
♦
With the arrival of the sun, nine days of pruning
m ade up for the lateness. As a slight excepti on ,
we pruned on ‘root’ days certain hillside parcels
requiring assistance with their root sys tems –
su ch as Les Damodes and half of Les Petits
Noizons.
♦
T h en , du ring the last two weeks of the month,
the cold returned with a vengeance, bringing
su b - zero tem peratures (-7, -8°C) and even a little
snow, wh i ch continued into the first days of
March , with the strong north wind accentuating
this gl acial climate. The snow raised ground water
l evels a little, a l t h o u ghthey still remain low after
two very dry years.
16th December 2003. The ‘Maria Thun’ preparation is energised here in the vines just before spraying.
However, wh en it comes to pruning, the month is
more important than bi odynamic con s i dera ti on s .
All the prem i ers crus and grands crus will be
pruned in Ma rch – the best month for this
important work – as will the young plantations,
a l t h o u gh in this case work will be carri ed out on
a ‘roo t’ day to help them better establish themselves.
♦
During this pruning peri od , the non - f ruit and
f l ower days in the bi odynamic calendar are set
aside mainly for burning wood, as this is
a po ten tial contaminant. An o t h er re a s onis that
we are uncom fortable with leaving it lying
a round for lon g , as this can prop a ga te fungus in
the ground.
First application of Maria Thun, for the first time in all the
estate’s parcels, this winter.
Pruning – the winter work whose effects will be seen in the
years to come…
♦
Then - for the first time in any of the estate's
p a rcels - in Decem ber and January part of the
team app l i ed 'Ma ria Thu n ' * , a homeopathic
com post wh i ch prep a res the soil for the com i n g
work . We spray of co u rse on ly in dry con d i tions,
by hand, on the entirety of the soil du ring a
waning moon and on a 'root' day, in order to
optimise its ef f i c i ency on the soi l . It took ei gh t
growers nearly two days to cover the whole area!
* see our previous letter
Although the white wines (with the
exception of the Corton-Charlemagne 2001)
have always been filtered, we decided for the
first time ever to filter some of the other red
2002 wines. The decision was to some extent
due to the vintage itself; but more
importantly, we have improved our
procedure to enable an extremely gentle
approach which removes only the heaviest
unnecessary elements without affecting the
personality of the wine other than to refine
it. The decision was thus taken to filter some
wines whose opacity (density index)
seemed too high.
We always strive to pay close attention to
each wine throughout its life, and in 2002
some had more trouble in clarifying than
others: the Clos-Vougeot,
the Charmes-Chambertin, the Beaune Les
Grèves, the Chambolle, the Clos du Prieuré
and Les Evocelles.
For these wines we adopted our gentle
technique. The system is simple: a lenticular
filter is placed in front of the filler, and the
wine is still transported by gravity, to avoid
stirring up the wine. There is then a brief
contact with cellulose (a natural substance
with filtering properties which traps the
colloids by absorbing them in its internal
channels), with plenty of attention to the
wine, which is not pumped.
Having been thus ‘sieved’, the wine retains a
very slight cloudiness – proof that its
substance has not been compromised – and
less sparkle than would have if produced by
strong filtration. Tasting reveals that the
wines have not been traumatised by this
filtering procedure, and will retain the
characteristics of a non-filtered wine; most
notably, a slight deposit in the bottle.