2012 Chambertin Grand Cru

Christophe Perrot-Minot has a new cuverie on the flats of Morey that is simple, functional and well-designed. Thewinery houses part of Perrot-Minot's impressive library of older vintages and large formats. A spacious, new tasting room at the domaine itself was also being finished when I stopped by in late November 2013. The 2012s are big, voluptuous wines with tons of depth, concentration and richness. Over the last few vintages, Christophe Perrot-Minot has backed off the super-extracted style that defined his wines a few years years ago, while still maintaining an approach that emphasizes texture and volume. At their best, the Perrot-Minot wines are totally thrilling. In 2012, yields are down an average of 33%. Perrot-Minot opted for soft pressing with the goal of avoiding over-extraction and used some whole clusters, as detailed in the reviews. The village level wines saw 20% new oak, while the 1er and Grand Crus saw a maximum of 30% new barrels. None of the 2012s had been racked at the time of this tasting. Going forward, Perrot-Minot is focusing the range a bit, so there is no more Gevrey-Chambertin Perrières or Chambolle-Musigny Echanges.

Christophe Perrot-Minot produced just 20 to 25 hectoliters per hectare in most of his parcels in 2012, in part because he eliminated a good 15% to 20% of his grapes, including those that he felt were underripe. Not surprisingly, potential alcohol levels of the fruit that remained were in the 12.8% to 13.4% range, and he did not need to chaptalize. He told me he did an extremely soft pressing, then just one pigeage every other day, relying instead on remontage, as he did not want to make an already round, voluminous set of wines heavier. Perrot-Minot describes the 2012 as "a classic year combining density and freshness. The 2010s are stricter wines with redder fruits, while the 2012s show blacker fruit, more fat, excellent fruit acidity and enrobed tannins." He added that his 2012s typically finished with between 1.5 and 1.8 grams per liter of residual sugar, which he says is partly responsible for the wines' opulence and impression of richness. (I suspect that many other producers also made 2012s that are a bit less dry than usual.) Since 2006 Perrot-Minot has used roughly 20% new oak for his village wines and 30% for the crus. The malolactic fermentations finished between February and May but none of the wines had been racked at the time of my November visit.