2021 Beaune Grèves 1er Cru

Head winemaker, Brian Sieve, receives me at de Montille’s Meursault winery, and as usual, he remains a wellspring of knowledge about the season. “We started the picking on 18 and 19 September. There was a huge difference in yields. For example, the Volnay Champans was cropped at 12hL/ha while Pommard Pézerolles was 40hL/ha, yet in 2022 the former was easier to prune. The difference is due to how far along the vine was in the growth cycle. We treated the vineyards 14 times in 2021 but only 8 or 9 in 2022. We remain organic and practicing biodynamic. Overall, we are about 65% down in the crus this year. There are significantly fewer whole clusters because the fruit was more susceptible and fragile, and if you tried to ‘work’ the growing season, you are walking on eggshells. I didn’t go into the vinification with heaps of confidence. I was trying to use bright, fresh fruit to make bright, fresh wines. The malos were quite normal, completed by the early summer. After we pressed off the grapes, I put them into stainless steel tank for three days, then racked them into another stainless steel before barrelling to enhance the fine lees that will nourish the wines during the second winter. The whites were racked at the end of July anticipating an early harvest, which was not quite as early as we were thinking.” This is a diverse set of wines, as one expects, given their portfolios strands the Côte d’Or with diversions into Chablis and Pouilly-Fuissé. Highlights include cuvées from Vosne-Romanée Les Malconsorts and the Les Rugiens-Bas and Pézerolles from Pommard. In contrast, other cuvées reflect a very challenging growing season, verifying Sieve’s claim of not trying to push the wines. There are a couple, such as Clos de Vougeot, that don’t quite pass muster, then along trots something like Puligny Les Caillerets, that kicks the ball out of the park. Readers should note that their wide range is shorter not just because of the season but because some of the smaller cuvées, such as the Volnay Brouillard and Pommard Les Grands Epenots, are now made as kosher wines for a specific UK importer and therefore not presented for tasting.