2021 Pommard En Boeuf

Champy is a good example of how a talented and driven winemaker doesn’t need a bundle of Grand Crus in order to make a name for himself. Since first reporting on his new Domaine after departing Domaine des Lambrays, Champy has perhaps become the poster boy for all that is achievable in the Hautes-Côtes, the hinterland of the Côte d’Or previously dismissed but suddenly becoming more attractive due to its higher altitude and propensity to avoid over-ripeness against the backdrop of global warming. Of course, this was not the case in 2021, which begs the question, how did Champy and others like him cope in a much cooler season?

“We were hit by the frost. But the candles definitely worked, and you could see the difference two weeks later. Flowering was later on 10 June during the one dry week but on 20 June up in the Hautes-Côtes, so we lost a lot of berries,” he tells me in his tasting room in the village of Nantoux. “I spent my summer weekends on my tractor. The harvest was long, from 19 September commencing with the Beaune Vignes Franches and finishing with the Aligoté on 10 October. We did an average of 46hl/ha for the Aligoté. For the Chardonnay, it went through a long fermentation. The whites took a long time to complete the malo, not finishing until August. We racked the whites just before harvest, so they are a little bit cloudy. I feel that we have the good mix of new oak, 20%, for the whites…it takes a few years to get to that level when you start out. We use a millefeuille of stems and de-stemmed bunches. During harvest, we could see some botrytis on the stem as we were sorting. So, we de-stemmed completely then added SO2 to the [detached] stems and then added them back into the must. We did not change the purchase of new barrels, so there is a higher percentage in 2021.”

Finally, Champy opines: “It’s not the ‘vintage of the vigneron’. It’s the vintage of the sorter in order to get rid of the botrytis. Two thousand and twenty-one is back to a classic vintage. It is a good expression of Pinot with more cassis flavours.” Champy is a very talented winemaker, and that shines through in his 2021s that managed to cope with the traumatic season thanks to the use of clever tactics such as the aforementioned detaching of the stems and treating them with sulphur, something that someone with Champy’s nous would do. Of course, it helps that the time-consuming practice needed only to be applied to a small volume. This year’s highlight is his Beaune Aux Coucherias, another from this under-estimated appellation that excels. Maybe his other cuvées do not quite reach the heights of the last two vintages…but they are not far off.