2013 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chaumées 1er Cru

Michel Niellon started harvesting in 2013 on September 28 "as the fruit was quickly degrading," said son-in-law Michel Coutoux, who also told me that most of the family's crus are now about 13.2% alcohol following chaptalization of up to a degree and a half. Average crop levels were in the healthy 50 to 55 hectoliters-per-hectare range. Surprisingly, Coutoux describes the young 2013s as wines to drink after the 2012s, which he describes as rather delicate: "low in acidity and very easy to drink; it's not a great vintage here like 2010 in spite of the small crop load." Still, he extracted more in 2012 owing to the tiny crop "because no rot was present at the beginning of the harvest."