2002 Gevrey-Chambertin En Champs

Mortet started harvesting on August 25 in 2003, bringing in fruit with potential alcohol ranging from 12.5% to 15%, and with the highest pHs and lowest acid levels to date.He carried out the same five or six days of cold maceration as usual, destemmed but did not crush his fruit, and then did a lighter extraction with less pigeage than usual ("I vinified 2003 like 2002," he told me).He kept the maximum amount of lees, putting the wines in barrel barely 24 hours after the pressing."The terroir was completely missing at the beginning, but the wines are gaining with elevage and now the terroir is returning," he told me.I was not wild for a few of the village wines, which could use a bit more shape and thrust, but Mortet's better 2003s are very good indeed.While they may well offer good medium-term aging potential, most of them should also offer pleasure in their youth (the 2002s, in contrast, really call for at least a few years of patience on the part of collectors).Beginning with vintage 2004, Mortet will dramatically simplify his portfolio by offering only two village wines from Gevrey-Chambertin:one from the oldest vines and the best terroirs (i.e., the old vines of en Motrot, and most of Combe de Dessus and en Derre) and another basic village wine.

I love 2002:it's a vintage that pleases me very much,' was Mortet's quick take on his newest crop of wines. A great spring with an early flowering, a very dry summer with no hydric stress, a so-so August with only about ten really good days, then a north wind with brilliant sunshine after September 10 brought my highest sugars ever.'Like Bernard Dugat, Mortet received special permission to start picking on September 16, before the ban de vendange The fruit was ripe, period,' Mortet explained. And I don't like surmaturite Mortet went on to say that he was not concerned about any possible fall in acidity as the harvest progressed.In fact, he added, the 50 millimeters of rain that fell over most of the appellation on September 19 had little effect on his grapes (he had pulled leaves at the beginning of the month in most of his vines younger than 45 years old and thus had well-aerated clusters), and the acidity levels of some of his wines are as high as those of 1996.(Martine's Wines, Novato CA