2020 Chambertin Grand Cru

“The 2020 vintage was easy to deal with,” congenial winemaker Carel Voorhuis told me when I dropped in at the Camille Giroud winery in Beaune. “Plowing was easy, as the soil was dry. The vines adapted earlier and better to the dryness than in 2018 and 2019, especially the whites. In the end, there was still some blockage due to lack of water, which means that acidity sometimes remains high. There is less potassium in the bunches because of the lack of rain, with less growth of the berries, so there are a lot of phenolics, and deeper color and aromatics. There was a higher skin-to-juice ratio in 2020 than in 2019, so there was a risk of over-extraction, especially for early-ripening vineyards. When those risks are dealt with, the wines are remarkably good. We started picking on August 24 in Beaune and Ladoix, and the whites two days later. We finished the whites on September 3 up in the Hautes-Côtes and in Mercurey, the reds on September 8 in Lavaut Saint-Jacques [a cooler microclimate]. We didn’t have to do a lot of sorting, just removing some verjus, but nothing basically, maybe 1% or 1.5% [of the crop] compared to 15% in 2021. The whites and the regional appellations such as the Bourgogne Rouge are bottled under Diam and others under natural cork.” What is so refreshing about discussing the wines with Voorhuis is that he admits when maybe things did not quite go right for a particular cuvée. Most of their wide range is not owned by Camille Giroud, so Voorhuis is reliant on others to ensure that their fruit reaches the required standards, and to this end he dropped a couple of contracts from the 2019 vintage while adding a couple of others. Of course, in 2021 the depleted crops made it extremely difficult for Camille Giroud to source fruit, but we will tackle that next year. In the meantime, there is plenty of admire in their 2020s, particularly the Santenay Clos Rousseau, the Savigny-lès-Beaune Aux Clous 1er Cru, the Chambolle-Musigny Les Borniques and a fabulous Corton Les Renardes.