2012 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru

Jacques Devauges crafted two splendid vintages at Domaine de l'Arlot before leaving to succeed Sylvian Pitiot at the helm of Clos de Tart, another owner of a very large and splendidly complex monopole that, like Arlot with its Nuits-Saint-Georges Clos des Forêts Saint-Georges, harvests, vinifies and ages multiple parcels separately before making a final blend. Crop levels were very low here in 2012, especially in parts of Nuits-Saint-Georges, exacerbated by a sharp night of frost in early February and some hail damage in the Clos de l'Arlot on July 4. Grape sugars were in the range of 12% to 12.6%, said Devauges, and he chaptalized about half a degree across the board. He describes the young 2012s as ripe and concentrated but not heavy, and predicts that they will last longer than the 2013s.

Jacques Devauges gave me a blow-by-blow account of the harvest season of 2012, explaining the major differences in conditions for the estate's vines in Nuits-Saint-Georges and adjacent Vosne-Romanee. "It was a difficult vintage that began with a very cold spell in February in which nighttime temperatures reached minus-13 degrees Centigrade (9 degrees F) and the north wind blew. The extreme cold penetrated the buds and we lost a lot of potential crop right here. Then the April through July period brought about 50% more rain than average and there were a lot of mildew and oidium pressures. The flowering was almost normal for us in Vosne-Romanee but difficult in Premeaux, where it happened a week later under cold and rainy conditions. The old vines suffered a lot from coulure and we lost a lot of crop. A hailstorm in the southern part of Clos de l'Arlot on July 4 seriously affected the Petit Arlot grapes and the white grapes, but the old vines were relatively unaffected. In the end, our overall production was down 45% in 2012, about 20 hectoliters per hectare on average."We started harvesting on September 20 and finished before the huge rain on the 25th. We're biodynamic and organic so we still had good healthy vines at the harvest. And it's a rare year when we have no botrytis, just like in 2009 and 2005. But 2012 was also a year in which the little mistakes were costly: the choice of harvest dates, the products you used, the timing of treatments."Devauges has cut back on the percentage of whole-cluster vinification practiced here previously, doing vendange entier only with tight millerande bunches "where the stems get more sun and ripeness." He told me he had never extracted less than in 2012: "just three pigeages per cuvee in total, and one small remontage using gravity." He believes that "part of the strong material in 2012 is from a stress reaction of the vines to the difficult conditions--this gave different molecules as a natural defense against the climatic conditions, especially mildew and oidium. In the end, 2012 is a vintage of density and sweetness, and these specific molecules may contribute to the typicity of the vintage." Happily, the top wines here in 2012 are sensational. All but the Romanee-Saint-Vivant had been racked at the beginning of September (or the end of October, in the case of the Clos des Forets Saint-Georges). (A Daniel Johnnes Selection, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, www.skurnikwines.com; also imported by Chambers & Chambers Wine Merchants, www.chamberswines.com)

I have to say, walking into Domaine de l'Arlot's cellars leaves a lasting impression on this visit, as some rooms are virtually empty, the result of a devastating 2012 growing season that took with it 45% of the production. The year got off to a rough start, with a brutal cold wave from northerly winds in February that was so severe it penetrated the plants. The oldest vines, those with the least vigor, suffered the most, winemaker Jacques Devauges told me. Rain from April to June was 50% higher than normal. Poor flowering resulted in high incidences of coulure (shatter) and millerandage (shot berries). Hail on July 4 was especially damaging to the whites in Nuits Saint Georges. Disease pressure, especially mildew, was significant throughout the summer. Like many estates that farm biodynamically, the number of options for dealing with disease was quite limited. The estate relied on copper and Chamomile treatments, which were effective to some degree. According to Devauges, most vintages allow for some margin of error with regards to the timing of when to treat the vineyards, but 2012 was a year in which even the smallest missteps were punished severely by Mother Nature. Conditions improved markedly in August and September. The 2012 harvest started with the Petit Arlot on September 20 and finished on September 28. The 2012s were vinified with 30% whole clusters across the board, with the exception of the young vine Cuvées, where only about 5% stems made it into the tank. Fermentations were quite gentle, with these wines seeing only three punch downs in total. All told, Devauges appears have made it through the first vintage he has seen from start to finish at Arlot admirably well. There is nothing like trial by fire. All of these wines, with the exception of the Romanée St. Vivant, were racked before the 2013 harvest.