2019 Bourgogne Les Grand Corvées

Winemaker and possibly the most photogenic man in Burgundy, Sébastien Caillat, remains a winemaker flying under-the-radar at a high altitude, a vigneron who together with his wife Florence, is pushing the envelop of what can be achieved in an appellation that in recent years has spawned a new crop of winemakers that have had enough of Meursault or Puligny-Montrachet grabbing the limelight. “I started the picking on 10 September in [Chassagne] Champs Gain, where I was concerned about the richness,” Caillat told me in his cosy, almost grotto-like tasting room just down from his cuverie. “The yields are small at around 25-30hl/ha. I use an old mechanical Vaslin press and it took five or six hours to complete because there was so little juice in the berries. It was a surprising year with around 14 degrees of natural alcohol with good acidity levels that seemed to concentrate during the growth cycle. There is a little more tartaric in 2019 compared to 2018. I was amazed that whilst the 2018s are 12 to 13 degrees of alcohol, they took a long time to finish their malolactic whereas the 2019 finished without much problem. I just had to open the doors to the vat-room when it became warm in July.” Caillat’s latest releases have so much nerve – remarkable considering the growing season in question. His Chassagne-Montrachet La Grande Montagne is scintillating in terms of its coiled-up energy whilst his Chassagne-Montrachet Pot Bois nudges Premier Cru quality. I concur with Caillat that maybe his 2019s will have an edge over his 2018s; though they are no slouches either. It is onwards and upwards.