2013 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles en Foule

Denis Bachelet bottled his 2013s last February, about a month earlier than normal due to a cellar construction project, but they were nonetheless very tightly wound when I sampled them in December. As usual, pHs here were on the low side in 2013 as Bachelet's wines always have good acidity, especially those from his old vines.

Denis Bachelet asked rhetorically: "With so many restaurants in France and elsewhere putting young Burgundies on their lists immediately, should I make wines that will give pleasure early or should I continue to make wines that need extended aging?" Bachelet, who has always maintained that his wines need at least six or seven years of bottle aging, seemed genuinely conflicted. Bachelet has always sought to retain sound natural acidity in his grapes, but he was not a particularly early harvester in 2013, beginning on October 5 and eliminating both rotten and green grapes. He had healthy crop levels in the range of 40 to 42 hectoliters per hectare in 2013 and potential alcohol levels were in the 11.8% range; he chaptalized his various cuvées to 12.5% to 12.8%. With healthy low pHs, the 2013s are in the same style as the 2010s and 2006s here, Bachelet told me. "They're probably for drinking after the 2012s."

Domaine de la Vougeraie started picking chardonnay on September 26, then brought in its Pinot Noir between October 2 and 15, with potential alcohol levels in the 11.5% to 12% range. Winemaker Pierre Vincent, a very youthful-looking 40, gave the pinots a ten-day pre-fermentation cold soak but noted that he did not have to chill the grapes because the ambient temperatures were low in October. He avoided vinifying hail-affected Côte de Beaune vines with whole clusters but used between 30% and 80% of the stems for all of the Côte de Nuits wines as these vineyards achieved good maturity and were not damaged by hail. Vincent, who took over winemaking here from Pascal Marchand in 2006, has cut back somewhat on the percentage of new oak. Just a few years ago the grand crus here were aged in 80% to 100% new oak but in 2013 the maximum percentage was 60%, and Vincent may eventually go down to 33%. Vincent told me that the 2013s had gained in harmony since June, and that their evolution had slowed down since late summer. "They show a balance similar to the 2010s," he said.

Louis Boillot was not the only grower who told me in November that he'd wait longer to drink the better 2013 Côte de Beaune premier crus than their counterparts from the Côte de Nuits. Although the Côte de Beaune in general fared much less well than the Côte de Nuits, the best wines are atypically concentrated owing to often infinitesmal yields, and their serious tannins will also require a long time in bottle to soften. Boillot picked his Volnay Les Angles on September 28 at 12% potential alcohol, then stopped harvesting until October 2, after which he brought in the rest of his pinot parcels with potential alcohol levels between 11% and 12.1%. He chaptalized one degree "at the most" and conducted a relatively gentle vinification, punching down the cap once per day rather than the normal twice, and shortening the total cuvaison from his typical 21 days to 15 or 16. Boillot told me that the skins were green and the seeds "half ripe" in 2013 and thus he completely destemmed his fruit. But he also prefers the balance of his 2013s to his 2011s, finding the newer set of wines "more fruity and less vegetal." He added that the tannins in 2013 were better on the Côte de Beaune than those of 2014, a summer in which the violet hailstorm in late June was followed by a heat spike that burned some of the grapes.