2023 Chambolle-Musigny Village

“It was a hot vintage with rain at the right moments, so the vines did not suffer as they had in 2022,” winemaker Jean Lupatelli tells me. He took over from François Millet in 2021 and has chartered a different course than his predecessor. “So, it was an easier season. We were surprised to see nature so generous. We were strict on green harvesting and in some parts, we took away half the crop. We have a larger vintage than usual with an average of 34 hl/ha. We started picking on September 6 whilst we had hot weather. An important factor is the phenolic ripeness, which I saw about three weeks before the picking and when we did the first pressing of the samples. The juice pigmented very easily and the pips and stems were ripe. This allowed me to be gentle on the extraction, mainly remontage instead of pigeage. You can see high amounts of polyphenols, but you can’t really taste that. The vinification was normal. We started working with whole clusters in 2021 and when you pressed, the last three or four grams of sugar were quite stressful [in terms of fermenting to dryness]. We have a new stainless steel winery which is helpful for that. Overall, I think 2023 is better than 2022 – I love the freshness we have in the wine.”