2012 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Embrazées 1er Cru

"Nineteen eighty-one was the last time we started harvesting in October," said Vincent Morey, who with one exception began picking in 2013 on October 3, just before a weekend of rain. Morey admitted to making the full allowable yields (53 hectoliters per hectare in the premier crus and 55 in village parcels). Potential alcohol levels were generally between 12% and 12.5% and, following chaptalization, the wines were at 13.2% to 13.7% when I tasted them from barrel at the beginning of June. Morey told me that they're a bit like the 2002s, "with ripeness coming from concentration, not sun. But they kept their freshness despite the conversion of the malic acidity. They're not fragile wines and they're not eating the sulfur quickly." Morey finds the 2012s heavier than the 2013s and believes that earlier vintage should be drunk first.

Vincent Morey described his young 2012s as "a bit richer than the 2011s, but with not quite the same purity due to hail and mildew." Yields were down from 2011 levels but Morey nonetheless described them as "pretty good." He chaptalized moderately across the board and the crus will eventually be bottled with about 13.5% alcohol. The malos finished by late January and the wines had been racked two months prior to my visit and returned to barrel with their fine lees. Morey told me that he stirred the lees a couple of times after the end of the malos (until the end of February) whereas in 2011 he stopped before Christmas following the very early malos.