2014 Pommard 1er Cru

There were really two types of Pinot Noir grapes in 2014, according to winemaker Frédéric Weber. On the Côte de Beaune, the berries were well-aerated and had thick skins and good tannins. The stems were mostly ripe but the seeds less so, so Weber reduced total maceration time and did a gentler extraction (just one pigeage per day for the first five or six days of the fermentation and no remontage) for fear of getting green tannins. He vinified with 10% to 25% whole clusters only where the stems were sufficiently ripe.

But the fruit on the Côte de Nuits was “more traditional and classic,” he told me in November. “We had good average yields; the grapes were juicier but had thinner skins and riper stems. ” Here, he vinified with 40% to 50% whole clusters and did a more classic vinification with two punchdowns per day.

Weber noted that the weather changed totally after the damaging hailstorm on June 28. July was rainy and cool and it was hard to work in the vineyards, he said. There were some problems with sunburn at the end of the month, especially on the Côte de Beaune. August was normal but not hot, with the northeast wind taking over at the end of the month. September then saved the vintage with sunny, warm afternoons and cool nights. Grape sugars were around 12% for the village wines, with the crus more often 12. 8% to 13%. There were outbreaks of acid rot, he reported, “but we simply marked the affected vines and didn’t harvest them. ”

Weber believes the 2014s have the balance for good aging, while the 2013 should provide earlier pleasure. But he noted that the ’14s “have become more fruity and open since July, and the tannins have lost some of their aggressivity. ”