2018 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru

Finding an appointment to visit Arnaud Mortet at his winery in Gevrey proved a challenge. The guy’s a busy man what with running the winery and a young family to tend to. But I could not countenance this report without this domaine that I have been visiting for many years and Mortet’s stand at the very pinnacle of quality in 2018, ranking among the best that he has ever crafted. "I made a large green harvest in the summer," Mortet told me, flitting from barrel to barrel, "so that we ultimately achieved yields around 30-35hl/ha for the Premier and Grand Crus. It was definitely important to pick early. I picked from 3 September and over the next eight days. You had to be very fast because the maturity was increasing rapidly. Fortunately I have a big team, around 45 people out in the vineyard cutting and a lot of people in the winery so that we can receive the handle the wines at the same rate. For the first time in 2018 I used a refrigerated unit [installed out in the front car-park.] I used this to lower the temperature of bunches by 10°C. The teams picked one cru in the morning and another in the afternoon. For the one in the afternoon I would leave it in the cooler overnight and then transfer it into winery the following morning. The maturity was high although in the end the alcohol levels range from 13.0% to around 13.7%, all with good natural acidity." One of the key aspects of Mortet’s modus operandi is cutting out the central axis of the bunches when using whole clusters, a laborious, time-consuming process currently used by the likes of Lalou Bize-Leroy and Charles Lachaux (readers should refer to my DRC verses Leroy article for details of this technique). It takes may of Mortet’s cuvées to a new level, perhaps analogous to a tailor meticulously using his scissors to guarantee that the suit fits perfectly. Indeed, Mortet’s wines are often spellbinding creations, thrilling wines that instantly seduce with their seamless texture, filigree tannins and beguiling purity of fruit. Where a winemaker earlier that day had proposed 2018 does not belong amongst the canon of truly great Burgundy vintages, Mortet was unequivocal that it does. You can completely understand that when tasted these phenomenal 2018s.