2014 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

Although a number of this estate’s Côte de Beaune vineyards were hit hard by the June 28 hailstorm in 2014, this is a juicy, ripe vintage here, as Domaine Prieur brought in their Pinot fruit with 12. 5% to 13% potential alcohol and did not chaptalize, according to winemaker Nadine Gublin. “Two thousand fourteen is a great, balanced year for white wines,” she told me in November, “but the wines from our hailed-on Pinot parcels are surprisingly fleshy and dense. ” Even their unscathed vineyards on the Côte de Nuits yielded fairly small crops, she added. Interestingly, Gublin told me that although the Drosophila suzukii arrived as early as the veraison, there was zero evidence of the flies in the hail-affected parcels, as those sparse vines were well aerated. The pHs were around 3. 4 in 2014, a bit higher than in 2013, which produced “more square, tight wines,” according to Gublin. In contrast, she went on, “the 2014s will be attractive early and do not show the severe side of 2013. ”