2018 Vosne-Romanée Champs Perdrix

For the final time, I met Philippe Brun at the winery, as Brun is due to retire in the near future. It will be strange not seeing him flanking Bruno Clair next year. Marsannay’s ‘dynamic duo’ has produced some excellent visits in recent years. “We started the picking on 9 September,” Clair told me. “That was the Bonnes Mares because it was already very ripe. But the serious picking really began on 15 September. We finished on 24 and 25 September. The yields were half for the whites because of the dryness, for the reds it was 15-30% less than last year. Vines with deep roots that could penetrate the fissures performed best and did not show any stress. But overall, I am very pleased with the regularity of crop across the reds irrespective of vine age.” It was a wise decision to pick that Bonnes-Mares early because it may well turn out to be their star performer, closely followed by the Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze. Comparing them side-by-side, I might err for the 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques over the 2019, but we will see. Despite millerandage in the vineyard, the Gevrey-Chambertin Les Cazetiers displays superb mineralité. Though their 2019 Clos du Fonteny is very promising, the 2018 seemed out of sorts and I will endeavour to re-examine this. Overall, it was a superb set of 2019s from Bruno Clair that will age with style.

Bruno Clair and Philippe Brun are the Batman and Robin of Marsannay that have really ratcheted up quality at this domaine. Both were on top form when I dropped in at their winery (though my God, whatever Bruno had just eaten for lunch, it was making his tummy rumble like Krakatoa!) “We had a lot of rain in the winter," he told me. "It was completely different to the 2019 growing season. In 2018 the maturity was quite strong. We started the picking on 27 August until the 8 or 9 September. I find that the tannins are very tender. Maybe you could say 2018 is a mixture of 1947 and 1959. There is more fruit than in 2003 and more phenolic maturity. The whole bunch in 2018 is between 30-40% as in 2017 and we did less pigeage after fermentation. The alcohol is between 13 and 14% but most are around 13.5%." I strongly recommend this domaine's wines, with some gems among the Premier Crus.