2014 Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru

Virgile Lignier started harvesting on September 17 with grape sugars between 12. 5% and 13%, chaptalizing barely 0. 3%. He told me he had already eliminated “a lot of rot and acid rot” with a large team between August 20 and September 5. “We had to be careful about the extraction of tannins in 2014,” he said. “Two thousand thirteen gave more phenolic maturity. The definition of Pinot was a bit less dense in 2014, so we could too easily have introduced a green element from the stems. And the seeds were also less ripe than in 2013. ” Still, Lignier vinified a majority of his ’14s with at least 50% whole clusters. He now punches down the cap a maximum of three or four times per cuvée and he did several days of post-fermentation maceration in 2014 but with the temperature naturally remaining at a moderate 30 or 31 degrees C.

The wines were racked into cuves in late October but had not yet been sulfured. Lignier now ages his wines in 30% new oak across the board.