2017 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

Pulling up in the courtyard at Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé amidst heavy drizzle, I was glad to get down into the dry cellars with winemaker François Millet to taste through the 2018s from barrel and 2017s in bottle. First I asked him about the 2018 vintage. "We had some good rain in spring and then after, the rain was below normal. It was dry, but there was not much stress in the vines because of the prior rain. We picked on 30 August [the same day as Clos de Tart, although not the earliest on record as the 2003 was picked from 23 August]. Climatically speaking, 2003 was a violet heatwave, whereas 2018 was warm but mostly dry and so it had a different effect on the vines. It was the same type of heat as in 1976 however that arrived much earlier, in the springtime. There was good sanitary conditions in the vineyard with nice bunches and good average yields around 30hL/ha, a bit less than in 2017, but comfortable for the domaine. It was not easy for those that had several places to pick in different areas: our advantage is that we are focused on just one area. We could pick everything at the same time and anyway, there was nothing to wait for. Picking was over in one week. There was intentionally no punch downs except for Bonnes-Mares, which needed it. We [already] had concentration because of the drought and the high ripeness of skins, not overripe, but I speak in terms of phenolic levels. The colour comes from infusion and pumpovers. It was important to be even more cautious this year because you could easily make "monsters" and then everything would look identical in the cellar. All the wines in 2018 are aged with 30% new oak. We used the cellar's air-conditioning to postpone the malolactic in spring because the barrels at the end of September were still at 18°C, so the malo risked beginning right after the alcoholic fermentation. The malo helps preserve the freshness and clarity in the wines, which was important in 2018 as it is not a mineral-driven vintage. The wines needed childhood. Malo is like puberty."

Winemaker François Millet guided me through de Vogüé’s wines as usual. It is a small range, so you can forget that they represent the lion’s share of these prestigious vineyards, not least Musigny. Millet is a quietly spoken man, always with his allegorical perspective on the previous growing season. (As an aside, when he describes the growing season in terms of an imaginary land of pools and waterfalls, the cartoon “Adventure Time” always pops into my head.)

“The vintage is larger than 2016,” he explained as we settled ourselves in the capacious cellar. “We almost suffered frost on the same day as last year. But it was less cold and the village was more prepared, burning some straw to create cloud cover. May was very warm. We had a heat wave that made the flowering very early, predicating an early vintage. The summer was dry but correct with no rot or fungus. We picked on September 2, a little earlier than other growers, but I have no regrets about that. It is important to keep the freshness and avoid overripeness. I did no punching down because the colour came easily. I am almost embarrassed by the colour of the Bonnes-Mares. I was able to postpone the malolactic fermentation in the spring so that it finished in June and July, as the lees were very good. This is important to preserve freshness, especially for that kind of vintage. The other important point is the yield. We did a green harvest and this was one of the keys of the vintage. We had a lot of juice in the berries, a skin-to-berry ratio that was quite low, which gave volume to the vintage. Some did some saignée but I am not keen on that. I prefer to just control the yields. There is no chaptalisation and alcohol levels are around 13.0° natural.”

This was a fine set of 2017s from de Vogüé. I often find the Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru to be the dark horse of the lineup, and the growing season illuminated the difference between it and the Chambolle Village. Both the Chambolle Les Amoureuses and Bonnes-Mares are classy and remind me of the 2014s, but a little fuller in style. I put them in level pegging at the moment, the Musigny asserting its superiority. Of course, for the last three vintages it has been joined by its white sibling, the Musigny Vieilles Vignes Blanc. Millet told me that he does not treat it like a normal Chardonnay, but exactly the same as the red Musigny. There is always something very aromatic and almost Rhône-like on the nose, with fine weight and density on the palate that distinguishes it from other Côte de Nuits whites.