2012 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

As is my usual habit with the Jadot white wines, I focused on the most recently bottled vintage--in this case the 2012s--on my early June visit, and will wait until next year to report on the 2013s, from what winemaker Frederic Barnier described as "a surprising vintage: the wines can lack density but they have good balance and are not underripe or vegetal." He went on: "We did some batonnage to counter the acidity and any lack of richness and of course we would like our wines to take something from the lees." Barnier reported that 85% of Jadot's chardonnay was picked before the rains on October 5 and 6.As for the 2012s, which were bottled in February and March of this year, Barnier told me that the grapes had hard skins and little juice. "The richness of the '12s is absorbing the malic acidity quickly," he added, pointing out that Jadot allowed 40% to 50% of the malolactic conversions to take place. Crop levels were in the very low range of 20 to 25 hectoliters per hectare. Very few 2012 whites were chaptalized, as natural alcohol levels were generally between 12.5% and 13% (100% of the 2013s were chaptalized), and 90% of the wines were kept in the same barrels after the first pumping between February and June. Barnier does not consider this to have been a racking as the wines remained on their lees. But he's seeking to maintain freshness by cutting the percentage of new oak during the second part of the elevage.