2021 Montrachet Grand Cru

Céline Fontaine guides me through her 2021s at their cellar in Chassagne-Montrachet. As often the case, she is frank about the growing season, the winemaker who translated the anguish of a traumatic season rather than just the statistics. “The 2021 vintage was particularly complex with the frost. We lost around half of the crop of white, which we fought using candles. The Chassagne reds are pruned Cordon de Royat, which buds later, so we have more red in 2021 than in 2020! The yields go from 40hL/ha in the Clos des Murées, where we placed candles and the worst in the highest terroirs, such as La Romanée, where the buds were quite open, and the snow was thicker. We put candles in the Grand Crus as usual and in the humid climats, which is crucial when temperatures are -2 or -3° Celsius. It was dry the first night, and then the snow came on the second night [7 April]. We should have lit the candles earlier in the night, but we were so exhausted. I was sleeping on the sofa for a couple of hours. But we could easily see their effectiveness. In Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet in 2016, we produced two barrels, and in 2021 there are five thanks to the candles. We placed new candles in the vineyard during the night, which Dominique Lafon was doing, rotating them. The snow offers protection when it covers the vine entirely, a bit like an igloo, but in 2021 the snow came from the west, leaving one side exposed. Choosing the plots to protect was very hard - you need more than ten people to protect three hectares. The average yield is around 25hL/ha for the whites.”

“After this, the plant growth was relatively slow. Flowering occurred around 5-10 June with many small berries, and we saw a few storms, quite wet with no hail. It was very tiring, wearing boots and trudging through the vineyard. After that, there was a lot of mildew, oïdium and botrytis pressure, which we had not seen for a long time. The first two weeks of August were dry and warm; then, it became wet again at the end of August and early September. So for the reds, we had to select more than usual, each plot different from each other in terms of the shape of bunches that change depending on the rootstock.”

“At harvest, the weather forecast was completely wrong! Many growers postponed picking to Monday, 20 September, when it looked good, but as the day approached, the forecast suddenly changed, predicting 30mm of rain just two days before. So we started on Saturday, including the Grand Crus, and Sunday. Monday was a washout, a complete deluge. It was the first time we stayed at the Domaine; the pickers just played cards and started in the afternoon. We then picked the Premier Crus after Monday when potential alcohol was lower at around 12% compared to 12.8% for those picked on Sunday. We finished the harvest around 25 September. For the vinification, fermentation was normal, but we had to extract a little more than usual. The wines have tension with decent concentration, though whether it’s my favourite vintage is another question.”