2014 Puligny-Montrachet Village

Eric Remy is a big fan of 2015 but also believes that 2014 is a great vintage. Hail was a serious issue in Puligny-Montrachet les Combettes and Folatières, Chevalier-Montrachet and Meursault Sous le Dos d'Ane, but the effect was on quantity rather than quality, he said. Remy had mostly finished bottling the '14s at the end of May and beginning of June, but a few of his lesser cuvées were still in tank. Remy told me he's currently drinking the estate's '99s, '00s, '01s and '07s, adding that some premature oxidation problems have emerged with the '06s and '08s. As I mentioned in my review of the '15s, the estate began using the longer, denser DIAM 30 corks with the 2014 vintage.

The 2014 flowering took place between May 22 and June 5 under what winemaker Eric Rémy described as "good weather but too warm." The flowering was especially successful on vines planted along a north-south axis but less regular on the east-west vines, he added. Average production for the estate was 46 hectoliters per hectare, about the same as in 2011, while 2013 yielded just under 40. Potential alcohol levels for the grand crus in 2014 were in the 12.8% to 13.1% range, noted Rémy, and no wine was chaptalized more than half a degree. Rémy compares 2014 in quality to 2010 and 2008, noting that the post-malo '14s have acidity levels between 4.25 and 5.25 grams per liter.

Meanwhile, the 2013s here have turned out very well, even if the skins of the grapes were more fragile owing to what Rémy described as "tropical conditions" at harvest. "In 2014, it was much drier and we could take our time picking." Rémy is convinced that the 2013s will begin to tighten up this fall.