2022 Montrachet Grand Cru

Céline Fontaine received me at the winery in Chassagne, and as usual, she gave a refreshingly candid overview of the season. “The 2022 vintage had a very good flowering with a lot of fruit and good structure of bunches. We were surprised to see so much fruit in spring. In my mind, I thought that the fruit would be ripe around August 20. That was what I was aiming towards during the season. But from July, the weather was too warm and too dry, and this retarded the véraison, which was particularly long. Rain was rare. So, I decided to pick later and began on August 26, a decision I’m happy with in retrospect. When we were tasting the grapes, I was very surprised about the Chardonnay berries, which were like chewing gum! They did not contain much juice. The young vines suffered a lot, even in Criots, which does not normally suffer. So, we began with the Chassagne reds and Volnay, as the whites and reds had the same ripeness levels. Sugar levels rose quite quickly afterward as it was warm. Quantities were generous in whites, around 50hL/ha, which is my goal for Chardonnay. If we had rainfall, there might have been more. The alcohol levels are around 12.5%. I was comparing the vintage to 2020 as I had exactly the same analysis of the Caillerets, but in 2022, we have more malic acidity, so the pH levels are higher. We had to correct just a little bit for some cuvées.” There is a shorter length of barrel maturation here, so most wines have been bottled. This address has improved immensely over recent vintages, each year demonstrating more and more refinement. It is a very consistent portfolio, though I would single out the Chassagne La Romanée and Boudriotte as high points, whilse their Bâtard-Montrachet is one of my favorites, alongside the rarely seen Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet.