2021 Vosne-Romanée Village

“We have to stop the tasting.”

Six words that any wine taster with an insanely hectic schedule shudders upon hearing. Yet that is exactly what Jean-Nicolas Méo has ordered. I understand; it’s a prudent move as the first cuvée taken from a pre-prepared bottle lacks freshness. Thankfully, fresh new samples are drawn from barrel. Phew!

“The 2021 vintage was a rather wet season; therefore, one of the issues was that the berries were engorged,” Méo begins, the first time that any winemaker has admitted this - logical when you consider the amount of rain. “The juice yield was high in this growing season, and even though the harvest was small, it’s almost a high-yield vintage in an odd way [if one considers that amount extracted from such tiny volumes]. How you dealt with extraction was one of the issues. The second issue was related to the evolution in barrel. It was a vintage with low acidity with quick malolactics that I don’t like. But when you have high pHs and malic acid, it accelerates the malo, and you need time between the alcoholic fermentation and malo to consolidate the tannins and colour. In vintages like 2019 and 2020, it matters less, but in 2021, it did matter. So we had to ensure the cellar was cool enough, and in some instances, added a bit of SO2.”

I rewind the growing season clock and ask about the harvest. “The harvest went well under good conditions, starting around 21 September,” he replies. “We thought there would be rain at the weekend, but there was only 5mm, even though 20mm had been forecasted. This dried out quickly, and we picked a little in the afternoon. I will bottle the 2021s a bit later. It’s a vintage that is nice and easygoing, and my recommendation is to drink them relatively early. Not that they can’t age, but it makes more sense to drink them early and keep 2019 and 2020 for longer.”

This is an intriguing portfolio, obviously truncated by the missing négociant cuvées that are decreasing in importance. Some leave me feeling as if the season’s travails got the better of the wine, for example, a slightly enervated Clos de Vougeot. Conversely, the Vosne-Romanée Cros Parantoux is stunning, their Aux Brûlées also with fire in its belly. It’s a little up and down, as one would expect in such a season, but I admire that these wines unhesitatingly translate the vagaries of the 2021 vintage.