2020 Fixin La Place

“In 2020, we started harvesting on August 28 and did everything in four days," Guillaume Tardy explained when I dropped in on his winery on the RN74 in Vosne. "When we saw the grape maturity, we knew that we would have 13.2° to 13.4° maximum potential alcohol. After malolactic, we are between pH 3.2 and 3.3 compared to 2019, when it was 3.4 to 3.5, so it has great acidity. As there was a big lack of water, the vines were stressed, and so maturity was stuck for a little while and everything concentrated. Fortunately, the tannins were ripe enough and before harvest, we had a little rain that finished off the maturity. So it ended quite well, despite the lack of juice compared to normal, around 25–30% less (30–35hl/ha). For an early vintage, the wines don’t taste like an early harvest. It feels more like wines picked around the end of September. For me, it has great potential. Everything is de-stemmed as usual and I use natural cork. I think it is my favorite vintage, alongside the 2016. It’s like a ballerina."