2018 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru

Caroline Drouhin-Laroze took me through the 2019s at the winery located in the heart of the village of Gevrey-Chambertin. Since entering the domaine in 2008, she, along with her brother, Nicolas, has gently steered Drouhin-Laroze onto a different course. “We did a green harvest as we had to be careful with the number of bunches and separate the doubles,” she told me. “It was a crazy vintage because when we saw the grapes, they were perfect. The alcohol levels went up one degree alcohol in five days.” The harvest began on 13 September and lasted until 22 September. “My father said he had never seen such a even harvest. The average yield was around 30-35hl/ha. There is a little more body than usual and the highest alcohol is in Clos de Vougeot which is over 14.0°. We used 30% whole clusters for most of the range. It’s a great vintage with a lot of maturity and freshness. The only shame is that some appellations such as Chapelle-Chambertin lost a bit of elegance.”

Recent vintages have shown much precision and terroir expression than I found in the 1990s and 2000s and the introduction of whole bunches has benefitted the wines. But I have been cautious with my scores this year. Why? The main reason is that I found some of the cuvées weighed down by a disproportionately large amount of new oak. That could well be because the unexpected shortfall in crop obliged them to use more new barrels than intended. For example, the Gevrey-Chambertin Dix Climats used 40% new wood when half that would have been sufficient. It just felt that the wood tannins were too strong on finishes and occluded the individuality of the vineyards. Hopefully that will become assimilated during the remainder of barrel maturation and during bottle ageing, but I wonder whether sunny vintages suit the style of winemaking. Caroline Drouhin-Laroze confessed that the vintage that has excited her the most is the cooler 2017. Maybe what is needed is a little tweaking in terms of canopy management in the vineyard to retard the final sugar levels so that it is synced with phenolic maturity? There are some very good wines here, including a very fine Clos de Vougeot, but this might be one of the cases where the 2017 and 2018 ultimately outperform their 2019s. We shall see.

Drouhin-Laroze is a Gevrey estate that I have visited for many years, an address undergoing an overhaul in winemaking practice since Caroline and Nicolas Drouhin took over the running. Once accused of smothering an enviable array of holdings with what seemed at times to be excessive extraction and over-zealous use of new oak, Drouhin-Laroze’s winemaking now sees far less intervention, whole cluster addition and God forbid, a cuvée with SO2. They are more proactive in terms of marketing the domaine and oversee a very useful and informative newsletter that is well worth picking up if you want to know the minutiae of the domaine. “In the beginning we thought we would have a really full-bodied vintage," Caroline Drouhin told me, "but now I think the freshness is coming and the wines are well balanced except appellations such as Chapelle-Chambertin that I find a little more full-bodied than usual." They cite three factors that nudged the bunches towards phenolic maturity: light coulure, some green harvesting and leaf-plucking. "We picked from 1 to 12 September," Caroline Drouhin continued. "The vinification was normal and we are using whole clusters, around 25% to 30% for the Grand Crus [see tasting notes for exact details]" The range is expanded with their négociant labels under "Laroze de Drouhin" that now extends down to Beaujolais and the aforementioned SO2-free Gevrey-Chambertin that unfortunately completely occludes the terroir expression. Give me the excellent Village Cru with a splash of SO2 any day of the week! I asked Drouhin for her opinions on the wines... "Gevrey-Chambertin La Crepiot is a very nice surprise and I think we have a great Latricières-Chambertin. Generally the 2018s are better that we thought. The alcohol is between 12.6% and 14%. We will rack the first wines at the end of December and start bottling at the end of January, then another racking with another bottling at the end of February/March when the weather is cold."