2013 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

Jean-Marc Boillot had a bigger crop in 2014 than in 2013, averaging about 40 hectoliters per hectare. The wines, he said, “have good acid structure and tension, with solid density of material.” And, he added, they’re more for aging than “the relatively open 2013s.” Boillot was still stirring the 2014 lees weekly at the time of my visit. He explained that this process gives the wines a wider range of aromatics, and that the oxidative particles in the wines are “neutralized” by the reductive lees. As his wines go into barrel very clear--that is, with almost no lees--he can stir them "without getting off aromas, just glycerol."

Boillot now ages all of his wines in about 25% new oak, with 85% of his barrels purchased from Damy. He requests a long medium toast and finds the barrels very consistent.

Like a majority of his colleagues on the Cote de Beaune, Jean-Marc Boillot feels that the 2013s will be for drinking "before the more concentrated 2012s," in spite of the fact that yields for chardonnay here were often quite low in 2013, ranging from "2011 levels to down 30% from normal."(Yields in 2012 were even lower:the estate average was an infinitesimal 12 hectoliters per hectare, according to Boillot.)He essentially began harvesting on September 29, bringing in fruit with around 12% potential alcohol, but noted that he picked his Champs-Canet on September 26 with a bit of noble rot.Boillot stirred the lees every seven to ten days through the end of the malolactic fermentations.