2013 Puligny-Montrachet Village

Two thousand thirteen was a demanding year in the vineyards, summarized Frederic Drouhin at the beginning of June."The first half of September brought a lot of rain and cool weather that triggered botrytis and slowed the maturation of the grapes."Then good, warmer weather took hold from the 19th through the 28th and the family picked its Cote de Beaune vineyards during the first ten days of October--or almost exactly the same period as in 1978."There was 20% botrytis beginning on October 3 and the skins were pink," noted Drouhin."The Cote de Nuits was actually more of a challenge as the fruit wasn't very ripe and the berries started splitting after the rain of October 4."In the end, it's a very heterogeneous vintage for chardonnay, he added, with the yields and date of harvest being critical. Drouhin told me he found the wines austere in the early going.I was only able to taste a few of the finished 2012s as the Drouhins made tiny quantities of their Cote de Beaune wines and were extremely short of stock.