2018 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

"It was an early season," head winemaker Nadine Gublin told me, once I have navigated my way through the thick fog and omnipresent roadworks surrounding their winery in Meursault. "We did a green harvest for the Chardonnay - the first time - in order to control the yield. We began to pick on 29 August and finished on 12-13 September. We commenced with the Chardonnay and then the Pinot Noir. It was sunny, dry but the big surprise was that despite there being no rain, the vintage was generous for Chardonnay. Pinot Noir was approximately the same as in 2017 and perhaps the variety is more sensitive to conditions than Chardonnay. Vinification was simple due to the healthiness of the grapes, the good level of sugar and the good tartaric levels. This was very important. The hot weather burned the malic acid at the end of August so the tartaric was crucial. The malolactic was done by May/June 2019 after which the alcohol was between 13.5% and 13.8% and the levels of total acidity around 3.80gm/L, pH 3.40-3.50. We will begin the bottling the reds in February up until July 2020."