2019 Chambolle-Musigny Village

Since debuting in 1999, Domaine de la Vougeraie has accreted one of the impressive array of vineyard holdings in Burgundy, a raft of Premier and Grand Crus spanning 39 appellations that would leave many a winemaker envious. As usual, Sylvie Poillot guided me through the 2019s. “The flowering was great,” Poillot told me. “There was no rain, just a problem in Chassagne where we had some frost, like in 2016, also in a small part of Savigny-lès-Beaune. We started the harvest on 9 September with the young vines in Volnay and then Nuits Saint-Georges and Chardonnay began three days after. There were 13 days of picking across the 48 hectares of vines. We used 110 pickers [a number increased when they understood that they would have to expedite the harvest] including the 14 people at the winery. The yields were lower with respect to Pinot Noir and greater for Chardonnay, less in Côte de Beaune than in the Côte de Nuits. There were differences between parcels though the Chambolle vineyards were all picked on the same day. The cuvaison was around 20 days including cold maceration with one pigeage and remontage per day without air, until fermentation began. We now use larger barrels for the Bourgogne Rouge and some appellation with no more than 25% new oak for the Premier Crus and maximum 30% for the Grand Crus. The generic red has been bottled, the Village Crus in December and the rest in February and March. The whites will be bottled in April.” This was a good set of wines from Domaine de la Vougeraie, which is the least one would expect given the vineyards in question. My picks both lie in the same appellations: an excellent Gevrey-Chambertin Bel-Air 1er Cru and Charmes-Chambertin Les Mazoyères, the latter utilizing 100% whole bunches to brilliant effect. From time to time, the wines miss that elusive je ne sais quoi that underlies the respective scores, likewise one or two cuvées could not disguise a touch of over-ripeness.