2012 Chassagne-Montrachet Vide Bourse 1er Cru

Thomas Morey harvested a few days earlier than his brother Vincent, beginning on September 29.Grape sugars were mostly in the 11.7% to 12% range, with brisk acidity, and Morey chaptalized some of his wines by the maximum 1.5%.Yields in his premier cru parcels were 10% to 15% less than the permitted maximum.Although Morey does not consider 2013 to be a fragile year (he worked with the same level of SO2 as usual), he did a more severe debourbage and brought just two liters or so of lees into the barrels due to his concerns about rot and oidium.As he began with a smaller quantity of lees, he then carried out a bit more batonnage than he normally does.Morey told me that the 2013s are a bit like the 2010s in their energy, but added that the 2010s possess more concentration and ripeness.He currently ages his crus in about 30% new oak but noted that he planned to cut this percentage to 25% in future vintages.

Thomas Morey describes 2012 as an attractive vintage with very good acidity, "as good as 2010 but not quite as ripe."Following a serious sorting in the vines ("the mildew in 2012 even attacked the grapes"), Morey did a "tight debourbage," keeping only the fine lees in order to get pure aromatics, but then stirred the lees every two weeks.The malos finished very early, by late December, and the wines had been sulfited and racked two months before my visit.Morey described the post-malo pHs as between 3.15 and 3.2, or lower than usual.