2013 Meursault Les Grands Charrons

Vincent Dancer uses no SO2 at the harvest or "enological products" during vinification, and he hasn't chaptalized his wines since 2007. "I'm looking for a perfect reflection of the weather conditions of each season," he told me. "Two thousand fourteen was a precocious year [he began harvesting on September 10], but the wines are richer and more generous than the 2013s." But he added that he has barely tasted the 2014s to this point so he doesn't yet have a clear preference for the newer vintage. The malos finished by the end of December, which Dancer believes is largely because he does not make any early sulfur treatments.

Dancer describes 2013 as "a very typical year that produced lively, terroir-driven wines. Actually, the results were extraordinary for a rainy hail year with a cold, humid August, as the wines have density and complexity." Dancer picked between September 26 and 30, well before the most damaging rains in early October, and insisted that he had no rot. "But it was necessary to eliminate the grapes dried by hail on our vibrating table."

"We started with very low pHs in 2013, and a lot of malic acidity," Jean-Marc Pillot told me at the end of May. "After the malos, the wines are now a bit light in acidity." Pillot picked virtually all of his chardonnay between September 29 and October 3, before substantial rain began on the night of the 4th, beginning with grape sugars in the 12.6% range and chaptalizing, on average, to about 13.2%. "If you had huge crop levels, you couldn't get the grapes ripe," he maintained, adding that he produced about 40 hectoliters per hectare, compared to barely 20 the previous year owing largely to widespread frost on May 17. "The ripeness was delayed in 2012 and the wines retained good acidity," he said, "and there was no surmaturite." Incidentally, Pillot put his 2012s in stainless steel tanks in September of 2013 for the last seven months of their elevage. He reported that they had "eaten" all of their SO2 by December and thus he was worried about grand cru wines at other estates that were bottled in September. "But 2012s that were harvested well and bottled late will be very good agers," he concluded.

Like so many of his colleagues on the Cote de Beaune, Dancer has struggled with low production levels in the past two years.He has the potential to produce 130 barrels of wine per year but made only 65 in 2013 and 35 in 2012.Dancer describes the young 2013s as "fresh, lemony and sappy but also round and not fragile--minerally wines of finesse."In comparison, the 2012s are about fruit concentration."They're more facile wines but they're not at all tiring and they have the density to age.But they may drink earlier than the 2013s."Dancer eschews sulfur additions during fermentation and elevage because he "doesn't want to kill the yeasts and bacteria with SO2."He told me he adds a bit of SO2 before carrying out a very natural bottling, without fining, filtration "or any chemical processes."Dancer has not chaptalized any of his wines since 2007.