2019 Meursault Clos des Corvées de Citeau

I was granted a first-hand view of the unglamorous side of a winemaker’s life during my tasting with Romaric Chavy in Meursault. Our tasting was constantly interrupted by an Eastern European lorry-driver whose lack of French or English led to several comical returns to clarity instructions about a delivery. In the end I advised Chavy to sort out the problem and just leave me to plough my way through his bottled 2019s. “It was not the easiest season with the frost on 3-5 April that led to a variegated maturity,” Chavy told me. “It was the first year that we bought and tried the fans [to help circulate air and reduce frost]. They work well when it is dry, but it was humid in 2019. The flowering was a little delayed but then there was a normal growth cycle. The picking began on 7 September and the yields were much smaller in frosted sectors where we lost 40% of the crop. I think the 2019 vintage is a good vintage. Two thousand and eighteen was an easier growing season with better yields. There is more concentration and acidity in 2019 and we used a little less of the lees than usual in the élevage as they seemed to be made to last long. I think that the previous vintage was more for immediate drinking.” For the uninitiated, I thoroughly recommend broaching Chavy’s regional whites that are superb, not least he Bourgogne Les Saussots from vines just below Volnay Santenots. Overall, his 2019s form a strong set of wines with just a couple of missteps such as the Meursault Les Vireuils, but this aside, Chavy oversaw complex terroir-driven, quite nervy Meursaults Villages that should age extremely well.