2002 Gevrey-Chambertin Cuvée Coeur de Roy

Dugat started harvesting on August 23, picking on the early side to retain acidity. Grape sugars were in the moderate-for-the-vintage 12.5% to 13% range, and most of the village wines and premier crus were lightly chaptalized.Dugat told me that he did not have much of a problem with heat stress due to his high percentage of old vines.Gevrey-Chambertin Evocelles suffered the most, as these vines are planted in rocky ground, with very little soil.Dugat reserved a refrigerated truck in May of 2003, because he knew by then that he'd be picking in the heat of summer and wanted to be sure that he could chill the grapes in order to do some pre-fermentation cold maceration.He acidified his musts lightly, but noted that natural acidity levels were better in the northern part of the appellation, which benefited from some invigorating rainfall in mid-August.He then did less pigeage and remontage than usual, and a shorter cuvaison.Like a number of his neighbors, he expressed the opinion that the young 2003s have been showing more gout de terroir and volume since the springtime.The 2003s were racked in July and were slated to be assembled in December and bottled in January and February.

Bernard Dugat has had a great vintage in 2002.In fact, he told me, the only problem with 2002 is that the vintage is too good and that people will drink the wines too early.Along with his friend Denis Mortet, Dugat started harvesting his Charmes-Chambertin on September 16, two days before the official beginning of the harvest on the Cote de Nuits, with special permission from the wine authorities.With his tiny yields, Dugat explained, the fruit was already at optimum ripeness, and waiting longer would only have compromised the wine's eventual balance.In fact, the noble tannins in these 2002s bear out Dugat's picking strategy.Dugat drops less-good fruit at several stages through the summer, and thus needed to eliminate less than 5% of his grapes at harvest-time.(Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville PA