2011 Montrachet Grand Cru

"The surprise of the 2011 vintage was to find salty minerality and tension in the wines," said winemaker Frederic Barnier, who did not begin racking these wines until December of 2012 and bottled them between February and April of this year."The year belongs to the early-vintage family, which means it has lowish acidity, sometimes very low," he told me.He left some malic acidity in all of the wines by blocking 20% to 40% of the malolactic fermentations, noting that the wines did not have much tartaric acidity due to the August heat."The entire cycle was early in 2011:all of the white wines finished their malos by February or March."Barnier noted that potential alcohol levels in 2011 were in the low 12s, with some in the high 11s, and that the wines were chaptalized to between 12.5% and 13%.He aged all of the 2011s in around 30% new oak.Incidentally, Jadot is now using DIAM corks for all of its white wines--a new DIAM GC for its premier crus and grand crus and DIAM 10s for the rest.Given the reputation and visibility of the Jadot wines, this represents a major vote of confidence for DIAM's manufacturer, Oeneo Bouchage. Also recommended:2011 Auxey-Duresses (86), 2011 Beaune Greves Le Clos Blanc (86).

Managing transitions in leadership is one of the biggest challenges businesses face. Few have done it better than Jadot. This was my first tasting at Jadot since Jacques Lardiere's retirement (which, by the way, does not appear to have lasted too long, as Lardiere will be involved in Jadot's new Oregon project) but it felt like winemaker Frederic Barnier has been at the helm forever, even though he only arrived in early 2010. Jadot's 2011s are striking. The wines are quite tense and vibrant for the year, much of that coming from the decision to block the malos at about 30-50%. One of the things I enjoy most about tasting at Jadot is the depth of the range, as there is nowhere better to get a broad view of a vintage than at Jadot given the mind-boggling array of appellations that are bottled here. As is the case throughout the region, I found the wines of Puligny to be particularly of note. Jadot fans may also want to take a look at a vertical tasting of the Corton-Charlemagne that we posted earlier this year.