2019 Montrachet Grand Cru

Cécile Gagnard is a winemaker that wears her heart on her sleeve, an increasingly rare virtue in the Côte d’Or. This is a producer that has enormous potential that will be realised when, not if. One of the major hurdles is the lack of space that precludes longer élevages that I am certain would take Fontaine-Gagnard up another level. Given their enviable holdings (minus their Pommard Rugiens as the vines were infected with leaf roll and pulled up), the mind boggles what will be achieved. Fontaine-Gagnard’s wines have improved considerably in recent vintages. “We had a warm month of March, too warm, so that buds opened early April,” Gagnard tells me in the barrel cellar. “We had frost especially on the morning of 5 April in Chassagne. It was the first time we used candles at the domaine and these protected one hectare on the best terroirs. But I was not as sad as in 2016 because at least this year we could fight back. I was surprised because the frost was predicted at 5am, but when we left our home at 2.45am, the glass on our car was already frozen. So we jumped in and arrived in Montrachet and could see Clos de la Mouchère was already lit. We lit the candles at 3am, then Bâtard and Criots, the lower part of the Cailleret where there is more clay, also La Romanée. Then we burned hay to make smoke although it was windy, so it was difficult to make a shield and it blew over Chagny. They weren’t happy at all! The day after we could see burned buds, particularly in La Boudriotte as its a cold microclimate and also in Morgeot. After that, we burned candles on 14 or 15 April, but these were not so efficient. Flowering was not great, and I have never seen as much millerandage, even in younger plots such as Clos Saint-Jean. We planned to pick around 12 September and decided to go earlier and earlier, and eventually started on 10 September. I would have preferred to start a couple of days earlier as the millerandé berries concentrated very quickly. Acidity in the whites was like in 2018. As it was so dry, the higher terroirs such as La Montagnes endured very low yields, down to 16hl/ha in La Romanée. Overall, we lost around one-third of the vintage, though fortunately the higher volumes were in the Grand Crus. I was surprised because the last plots that we picked were those with more clay that gave higher sugar levels. When I looked at the analysis, I could see how stressed the vines were. We have not produced wines with such high alcohol degrees since 2007, mostly around 14°, the highest in La Maltroye. It is a very concentrated vintage and became quite austere during the barrel ageing except Maltroye. The 2019s were all in bottle at the beginning of August. The reds have not been racked yet and they are still on the lees. They had high sugar and high acidity and so the balance is natural.” I found varying degrees of success across this wide portfolio. Some of the entry-level wines at regional and village cru level felt a little overcome by the warmth of the growing season and lacked a little tension, put into sharp relief when you tasted the excellent Les Chenevottes. To reiterate, I do think these wines will gain another layer of complexity if afforded a second winter in barrel, particularly when considering the three Grand Crus. It is a question of space, however, that is being addressed.