2013 Vosne-Romanée Village

Véronique Drouhin told me it was hard to compare 2013 to another vintage. At my urging, though, she made two attempts: "More pleasant than 2005 but not as dense or long-lived," and "not as acid as 2008." I liked the definition and quality of tannins of the Drouhin '13s.

The 2013 growing season was 15 to 18 days late from the start, said Véronique Drouhin, who added that rain during the third week of June led to a lot of coulure and millerandage in the estate's old vines on the Côte de Nuits and sharply reduced potential yields. July then brought nice weather, except for the very damaging hail storm on the 23rd, which resulted in crop losses between 20% and 80% in affected areas on the Côte de Beaune. It was necessary to wait for phenolic maturity of the Pinot Noir, and the family used an optical sorter and a vibrating table to do a careful elimination of damaged and underripe fruit. The malos occurred fairly quickly, at their normal time, and Drouhin described the élevage of the young 2013s as easy. But as the wines had begun a bit simple, the family did a lot of work with the lees. As there was very little reduction, the wines had not yet been racked at the time of my November visit. Véronique expressed the opinion that the wines from Chambolle-Musigny were particularly expressive of their terroir in 2013, while her brother Frédéric described the '13s as "precise, nuanced and not overwhelming, with good freshness and textured tannins." He finds them rather austere in their youth.