2014 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru

Cyprien Arlaud is a fan of the 2014 vintage “because if you picked a normal crop at the right time, you could make very good red wines.” He noted that although “one feels the acidity more in the 2014s, the wines are already fresh and pure and they are very long for their age.” Arlaud told me that the ‘14s were actually very tight, tannic and dry in January of 2016. “They spent longer in mass to clarify but returned to their early purity,” said Arlaud, who bottled the wines at the end of February.

Cyprien Arlaud is a fan of the 2014 vintage “because if you picked a normal crop at the right time, you could make very good red wines” He noted that although “one feels the acidity more in the 2014s, the wines are already fresh and pure and they are very long for their age” Arlaud told me that the ‘14s were actually very tight, tannic and dry in January of 2016 “They spent longer in mass to clarify but returned to their early purity,” said Arlaud, who bottled the wines at the end of February

Cyprien Arlaud told me in November that he believed at the outset that 2014 was less good than 2013. But today, he went on, he’s “getting more and more pleasure from the young wines and raising his estimation of the vintage. ” He pointed out that 2000, 2006, 2007 were previous dry years that suffered a greater loss of acidity during heat spikes than 2014 (or even 2015) did.

He began harvesting in 2014 on September 15, eliminating a bit of rot from some vineyards and carrying out a week-long pre-fermentation cold soak. Arlaud, who as a general rule has been reducing his use of sulfur dioxide and chaptalization, told me that none of his wines were chaptalized more than 0. 5%. Two grand crus, he added, weren’t chaptalized at all and the finished wines will be around 12. 7% alcohol. Arlaud also noted that he hasn't done more than three pigeages per cuvée since 2004. Yields here were healthy in 2014: about 45 hectoliters per hectare for the village wines, 40 for the premier cru and 38 for the grand crus.