2018 Chambertin Grand Cru

My penultimate visit during my Burgundy 2018 tastings was to Camille Giroud, where I met with German winemaker Carel Voorhuis. I had last seen him just as the winemaking reins were being passed to him from David Croix in 2016. Camille Giroud’s wines have been performing well in the blind "Burgfest" tasting and so I was eager to reacquaint myself with the range. I tasted the full complement of reds but alas had only time to taste a couple of white, lest I miss my flight home. "I began the picking on 28 August and finished with the Chambertin on 13 September," the congenial Voorhuis told me. "The fruit was very healthy and we did not have to hurry to get the grapes in. In 2018, you had to be careful with ripeness levels in order to keep the freshness for both whites and reds. Reducing the level of SO2 has also helped us, whilst recently we changed the air conditioning in the cellar to keep the temperature at 11-12°C, which helps prevent brettanomyces infection. We have been lucky in the last couple of vintages. They are different in style but in the end, quite balanced. We had to acidify just two of the whites and we did not have to adjust the reds too much. The highest level of alcohol is Nuits Saint-Georges with 13.8% and most are 13.0%-13.5%. Using whole cluster reduces the level of alcohol. Overall, I think it is a vintage greater for the reds than the whites." I was impressed by these wines that are generally very elegant and refined. Voorhuis is one of the few winemakers I met who was candid about one or two of his cuvées that might have been picked at the wrong time or just haven’t quite met the mark. Curiously it was among his Premier Crus that I had some reservations and discerned a little sur-maturité, the Les Cailles that underwent a very late malolactic fermentation very difficult to read. Maybe a couple of cuvées received some stems that were not fully lignified but overall, there are plenty of very fine, graceful, what you might call "transparent" Pinot Noirs that are going to make a lot of winemakers happy.