2021 Chambertin Grand Cru

Christophe Perrot-Minot is doing construction work at his winery, though not on the scale of his new neighbours in Morey-Saint-Denis. We descend down to his tasting room to go through his 2021s.

“I had some parcels affected by the frost, losing up to 80% of the volume in some places, around 10hL/ha. I made 49 barrels instead of the usual 150 or so, around one-third of a normal crop. The mildew was everywhere, whereas the oïdium was much more localised. I started the picking on 24 September with six days of harvesting. I used fewer whole bunches at around 20% as I didn’t feel the stems were ripe. It was difficult to find the perfect stems in 2021. The trouble was that [as Perrot-Minot mentioned already] the mildew was spread everywhere, so it was vital to undertake a strict sorting at reception. We did not have the ripeness to do a strong pigeage, because you would extract rusticity, so I did less and more remontage.”

Many winemakers are dabbling with Wineglobes. “Two or three months after the malo, I racked between 10% to 50% depending on the cuvée into 33 Wineglobes to preserve the CO2 and protect colour, structure and preserve the crystalline nature of the 2021s.” During my visits, this was the widest use of Wineglobes that I encountered, though I must emphasize that they are not used throughout the entire élevage, just as Perrot-Minot says after the malolactic has been done.

“It is a fine and elegant vintage,” Perrot-Minot remarks when I enquire about his overall view of 2021. “They don’t have a huge structure - they are more crystalline - though fragile in terms of colour and backbone. I don’t think it’s a great vintage. A great vintage is uniform in terms of maturity and longevity.”