2012 Savigny-lès-Beaune Village

Rouget, who has been using a "new and gentler pigeage instrument" since 2007, told me that his extraction was especially light in 2012. Due to the very low quantities of wine and his tiny cement cuves, the temperatures remained low and after long pre-maceration cold soaks of up to 12 days he had to heat the cellar to start the fermentations. The maximum fermentation temperatures did not exceed 26 degrees C. Rouget picked on the late side in 2012, beginning on September 24, noting that he had everything in '12, including a bit of rot at the end. The young wines, he said, are more tannic than the 2011s and lower in acidity than the 2010s. The wines will only be racked for the bottling, which will not take place until June or July of 2014.