2022 Meursault Les Chevalières

“In the beginning, it was complicated,” winemaker Etienne Chaix tells me, his uncle Jean-Pierre Charlot now fully retired (though it was great to bump into him at Beaune’s finest restaurant, La Lune, during my trip.) “We were scared about the frost returning in April, and it was OK, but it was touch and go on April 3. Spring was sunny, with some rain at the end of June that saw around 30mm of water. After this rain, it was fine during July, despite the hot temperatures, the vines in good condition. We had a second storm on July 21 with 10mm, which was good, then 17mm of August 15. This rain maintained the volume of the vintage. There was some stress at the beginning of August, and maybe this kept the acidity and freshness because it kept the tartaric acidity. The harvest started on August 27 in good sanitary conditions, and this meant we could macerate between 22 and 24 days to extract fine tannins. Everything is de-stemmed.”