2013 Meursault Village

Jadot harvested Chardonnay relatively early in 2013, starting on September 24 and finishing before the weekend of rain in early October, said winemaker/technical director Frédéric Barnier. Grape sugars averaged around 12% and the wines will be bottled with between 12.5% and 12.8% alcohol. The first grapes were very high in acidity, said Barnier, but by the second week of the harvest, which had some rain, "the balance was not the same" and Barnier ultimately blocked a portion of the malolactic conversions, mostly of Meursaults and Chassagnes.

Barnier noted that whereas the 2014 alcoholic fermentations went very quickly, some barrels in 2013 had a hard time finishing their sugars as the numerous vineyard treatments during the summer, in conjunction with high acidity, made for a poor environment for yeasts and bacteria.

Barnier did no settling of the must in 2013, as he wanted to give the wines "maximum possibilities and nourishment." He did some stirring of the lees between the end of the fermentations and Christmas owing to their high acidity, and to the leanness of certain cuvées. "The 2013s will take a few years to digest their acidity but they have good bones," Barnier told me. "Today they're not that friendly due to their high acidity and austerity. They will only give you an idea of what they really are in three to six years. But they have a certain density and they're not fragile: they will age for a long time. They're in the line of 2010 and 2008 for transparency, purity and freshness." He went on: "My fear was of getting vegetal flavors like in 2004 but we only have pepper and spices, not veggies." The 2013s were bottled between mid-February and the end of April.