2012 Richebourg Grand Cru

Since the outset, Etienne Grivot has viewed 2012 as a great vintage for aging. "The wines are perfectly harmonious and show a rare expressiveness. Two thousand twelve is close to my ideal vintage, like 2002." These brilliant wines from a tiny crop should be very long-lived.

Etienne and Marielle Grivot are now ably assisted by their daughter, Mathilde Grivot, who seems to have inherited all of her parents' passion. Marielle Grivot divides her time between Grivot and her own family's estate, Simon Bize, as part of a transition that was already under way before the tragic passing of here brother, Patrick Bize, a few months ago. An avid equestrian, Mathilde Grivot appears to have fully recovered from a scary fall last year, which is great to see. The 2012s saw 5 days of pre-fermentation cold soak followed by about 12 days on the skins. Time in barrel is expected to be 13-14 months, followed by 1.5 months in steel. The malos were quite late and finished only during the 2013 harvest. For that reason a handful of these wines, (the Chaumes and Reignots in particular) were reduced and in need of racking, something that is not unusual with Burgundies that are handled minimally. Where applicable, I have indicated wines that were reduced. Bottling is scheduled for February 2014. As is the case throughout the region, production is down sharply across the range. At -50% of typical production, the Combe d'Orveau is the most dramatically affected cuvée in the cellar.

"Two thousand twelve was a completely crazy year," said Etienne Grivot. "And very different. The weather finally started to get better in mid-July, and then the north wind after mid-August allowed the grapes to reach perfect maturity. We started harvesting on September 20, and it was one of the most beautiful years I have ever vinified. The wines are splendidly pure, and the dense fruit character is carried by phenomenal precision and energy. As in 2010, 2011 and 2013, it was impossible to make great wines from yields over 30 hectoliters per hectare." (Grivot's yields in 2012 were in the 18 to 25 range.) As Grivot's cellars warmed up slowly in spring, the malos were very long and the wines were sulfited for the first time since the vinification about ten days before my visit; he planned to rack them in December. "Today we see the iodine, the graphite, the saline character, the thrust," he noted. "One can only imagine the fruit yet to come." The wines will be bottled with alcohol between 12.5% and 13.2%, following about one degree of chaptalization. As high as my scores were for the 2012s, I couldn't help feeling that most of the wines were still slightly affected by the recent sulfuring.