2010 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Champgains 1er Cru

Back in the days when Michel Niellon aged his wines under his house in the center of Chassagne-Montrachet, no doubt the malos in a vintage like 2011 would have been over by Christmas. But in his much cooler warehouse space on the edge of town, some of the secondary fermentations lingered as late as April, according to son-in-law Michel Coutoux. The estate started picking on the first day of September, bringing in generous yields and potential alcohol levels ranging from 12% to as high as 13.4%. Most of the village wines were chaptalized liberally, but less so for the premier crus. Coutoux noted that the family also harvested early in 2010, obtaining good acidity and tiny, complex grapes that had recently lost a bit percentage of their water. Owing to the late malos, some of the 2010s were bottled in October of 2011. In the original cramped cellar, all of the wines had to be finished prior to the next vintage simply for reasons of limited space. Coutoux described 2010 as "my favorite white wine vintage since I started here in 1988. The wines have everything: energy, acidity, length. We lacked only quantity in 2010."

Michel Niellon told me the key to the vintage was choosing the right picking date, especially after a thunderstorm in Santenay on September 12 forced many growers to pick a few days earlier than they had originally expected. Yields are down 15-30%, depending on the appellation, mostly because of the irregular flowering. The domaine's parcels had a high percentage of coulure (shatter) and millerandage (shot berries). According to Niellon, it is the uneven size of the berries that marks the vintage, as the smaller berries gave concentration, while the larger berries contributed acidity. As was the case throughout the region, the malos were quite slow to develop, and a few of these wines were bottled a little later than usual, something that is now possible because of Niellon's huge warehouse facility in an industrial section of Chassagne a few kilometers from the old, historic part of the village. The 2010s were aged in barrel until just before the 2011 harvest, at which time Niellon bottled the Chassagne-Montrachet, Champ Gains, Vergers and Chaumées. The Clos St. Jean, Maltroie, Chevalier and Bâtard (which I did not taste) were bottled in October and November 2011.