2012 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru

Sebastien Cathiard, who took over responsibility for winemaking at the family domain in 2011, told me that the grapes were very clean in 2012 and that virtually no sorting was necessary. Production averaged about 42 hectoliters per hectare, or roughly the same as in 2011. Cathiard did a bit more extraction in 2012 than in the previous year. He began by carrying out the estate's normal 12-day cold maceration at 10 degrees C, then did 8 to 10 pigeages for each cuvee, compared to 6 to 8 in 2011. He also did about a week of post-fermentation maceration, resulting in total time on the skins of 25 or 26 days. Thus far he has avoided vinifying with whole clusters because he's afraid that this technique would mask terroir. He also plans to cut the percentage of new oak used for the family's wines in 2013, from 100% today for most of the crus to 60% to 80%. The very promising 2012s were a bit hardened by a light sulfur addition two weeks prior to my visit, so I would not be surprised if most of them ultimately merited scores at or near the high end of my projected ranges. Cathiard believes that the 2012s are at the same level of quality as the estate's 2010s, and he's confident that they can support long elevage and long aging in bottle even if they will be more expressive early on than the '10s. (A Becky Wasserman selection; importers include Frederick Wildman & Sons, www.frederickwildman.com; Veritas Imports, www.veritaswine.com; and Wines Unlimited, www.winesunlimited.com)