2021 Monthélie Rouge

My itinerary forewarned that Anne Morey could only show two cuvées from 2021, such was the devastation upon volume in 2021. In the end, I was able to taste half a dozen of her depleted portfolio. It wasn’t all bad. “In Aligoté, it was almost a normal crop,” Morey explains. “The rest [of the cuvées] I lost between 50% and 90% of the crop. It is the smallest harvest if you don’t include the Aligoté. I started picking on 16 September and finished on 24 September, not quickly, as you had to carefully find where the vines' surviving ripe berries were located. Doing pigeage on small quantities is easier, but you have to be careful not to over-extract. The 2021s are airy and floral and show the fruit well. Even my father said it was the most difficult vintage he had ever seen. It was difficult getting up in the morning.”