2021 Gevrey-Chambertin Village

“It was a season with a lot of humidity and rain, no excessive heat,” Esmonin tells me, her dogs belting up and down Clos Saint-Jacques outside. “It was around 30° Celsius on only four days. It was complicated in the vineyard in terms of applying some treatments. It is the smallest vintage of my career. It was very tiring. I started around 21 September with just half a hectare, but most of the crop was picked between 25 and 28 September when there was balance between ripeness and risk of rot. But looking back, the wines have freshness, terroir definition and drinkability. The wines are balanced but with less power than 2020. I used around 50% whole bunch for all cuvées except the Bourgogne Rouge because our de-stemmer is very gentle, and I wanted to keep the structure of the berries that had fragile skins. It was the physical attributes that motivated me to use them.”