2023 Pommard En Boeuf

Champy was waiting for me with his faithful hounds at his winery in Nantoux. I will write some of Champy’s summary of the 2023 vintage, although readers should be advised that there is also a video in Vinous’ media section.

“It was the first time that the heatwave coincided with harvest, so this made the conditions difficult. I saw some vineyards with potassium deficiency, which is something I’ve never seen before in Burgundy, only in California. This is why we picked the Beaune on the first three days after September 7, just before the heatwave. But the Hautes Côtes was not ready, so we picked this and the Pommard after September 15 and finished on September 29 with the Aligoté. It was a long harvest. The yields are almost identical to 2022, a little less in red due to the crop thinning and a couple more barrels of the white. The key to mastering yields is by pruning. We have not done so much racking in 2023. The clusters for Chardonnay were not quite as big as Pinot Noir. We quickly saw that the wines had a tendency for reduction, so we did a little more débourbage [settling] than normal.”