2009 Grands-Echézeaux Grand Cru (M)

Jadot harvested Pinot Noir beginning on September 2 on the Côte de Beaune and on September 9 on the Côte de Nuits. The parcels that produced higher yields tended to come in with 12.5% to 12.7% potential alcohol, noted technical director Frédéric Barnier, but very few wines were chaptalized (“and only like adding salt and pepper”). Some of Jadot's vineyards were picked as high as 13.5%. The fermentations were “not too quick” owing to the density of the vintage, noted Barnier, who typically did two punchdowns per day during the eight or nine active days of the fermentation (total maceration time was generally about three and a half weeks). The malos were “classic,” finishing between February and June, and the wines were easy to rack clear—in contrast to the ‘14s, which were leesier due to the element of botrytis.

Barnier uses more or less one-third new oak across the board, in an attempt to minimize this variable and emphasize terroir differences among his vast number of wines. Jadot uses all Cadus barrels (they own this cooper) but have recently added some new origins for the oak itself. And Barnier prefers to use barrels aged for 24 to 30 months, vs. a standard 36 months at Cadus, as he believes that the tannins of younger oak are more resistant to oxidation. “With somewhat shorter aging of our barrels, we get less vanilla, less whiskey lactone and coconut character,” he explained, adding that “the risk, of course, is to get a certain greenness.” Barnier told me that he’s particularly proud of his Beaune wines in 2015, “even in the context of the high quality of the vintage.”

As late as mid-August, said technical director Frédéric Barnier, Jadot expected to start the harvest with Pinot Noir. But the ripening of the fruit then speeded up dramatically and the Chardonnay faced greater rot pressure. So the team began with some white grapes on September 11, then attacked Pinot Noir on September 15, picking with grape sugars in the 12% to 12. 5% range. By then, Barnier added, the Pinot plants were close to the end of their ripening cycle and they really didn’t gain in sugar in the last days before the harvest. “But the Chardonnay sugars were mounting quickly. ”

While Barnier destemmed all of his grapes and couldn’t do a cold soak with the fruit from vineyards afflicted by acid rot, he was generally able to carry out his normal extraction during fermentation. If the wines spent a bit less time on their skins than the previous year, that was due to warmer ambient temperatures. Barnier told me that 95% of the reds finished their malolactic fermentations before Christmas, which is unusual in their very cold cellar. “But the wines are back to what they should be after being awkward in the spring,” he said.

The differences in fruit ripeness and balance between the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits were clear at Jadot, just as they were at virtually every other cellar with wines that span the Côte d'Or. Yields were much lower here in the Côte de Beaune wines, but Barnier described production on the Côte de Nuits as good in 2014."And those wines have a totally different touch; they're easier to taste." He noted that numerous wines from Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanée have an extra measure of density due to some hail losses. And he also likes the hail-afflicted village of Beaune for the "rare concentration" of many of its wines.

Jadot started harvesting chardonnay on the Côte de Beaune on September 24 because rot was spreading quickly and the fruit had to be picked, said winemaker and technical director Frédéric Barnier. Thanks to the early start, Barnier added, 85% of the domain fruit was in before the rains of October 5 and 6. "After that, there was a big problem," he told me. Grape sugars were in the 11.5% to 12% range in 2013 and Barnier chaptalized his many wines between 1% and 1.5%. He describes 2013 as "a cold vintage, like 2010, 2008 and 2002." He destemmed all of the fruit in 2013 as he was afraid of getting vegetal aromas during the long macerations. Barnier is now trying to age all of the Jadot reds from the Côte d'Or in roughly 30% new oak in order to privilege differences in terroir. This was a perfect place to compare results on the hail-affected Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits. Although I had a clear preference for the clarity and energy of the latter wines, Jadot has made some very concentrated and often tannic Côte de Beaune reds that should reward extended cellaring. Fifteen hundred hectares of vines were affected by hail in 2013, noted Barnier, adding that the late-June hailstorm in 2014 was less widespread but even more intense.

As usual, my tasting session at Jadot encompassed a dizzying array of wines. Although he only took over formally for Jacques Lardière in 2013 , winemaker Frédéric Barnier appears totally calm and settled into his role. Transitions are never easy, but Jadot seems to have managed this step of the process seamlessly. It's virtually impossible to generalize about a vintage at Jadot when the wines cover so many appellations, so readers should take these comments as broad brushstrokes that find more focus within the individual reviews. Overall, 2012 is very much a black fruit vintage at Jadot. By comparison, both 2009 and 2011 were brighter, while the 2010s are mostly marked by their energy. As was the case throughout the region, yields were affected dramatically because of poor weather conditions. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the wines of the Côte de Beaune, many of which are unusually big and burly. The weather also claimed several well-known bottlings here, including the Beaune Avaux, Toussaints and Chouacheux, Pommard Epenots and Grands Epenots, and Latricières-Chambertin, none of which were produced. In 2012, my preference is for the wines of the northern Côte de Nuits in the Jadot range.

Burgundy lovers who think of Jadot's red wines from the Cote d'Or as classically dry and backward in their youth may well be shocked by the 2012 vintage here.There's an extraordinary sweetness and mellowness to many of these wines that will give them great early appeal, even if they have the concentration and seamless tannins to support graceful evolution in bottle.According to winemaker Frederic Barnier, the wines typically finished with between 1.5 and 2.5 grams per liter of residual sugar, with some as high as 3.0.It wasn't that grape sugars were freakishly high; it was more a matter of the sheer density of material in 2012."We had great thick skins and no juice," said Barnier."We didn't have juice, we had jam."He added that the tannins were firm, even dry, at the beginning but that the malolactic fermentations rounded out the wines.Jadot picked 130 hectares of vines in just 11 days, beginning on September 18 with the chardonnay, as crop levels were extremely low and little sorting was needed.Potential alcohol levels were in the very healthy 12.5% to 13% range and no wines were chaptalized more than a half degree, according to Barnier. The pHs are slightly on the high side--between 3.45 and 3.6--but Barnier noted that the 2012s have slightly better acidity than the 2011s.As to where the vintage was at its best, Barnier noted that he was more impressed with the quality and density of the Cote de Beaune wines, where yields were especially low.The wines of Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne-Romanee, he added, need more time, in barrel and in bottle, and Gevrey-Chambertin fared particularly well, as there was less oidium pressure this far north.He noted that Jadot harvests earlier on the Cote de Nuits than most, in order to retain freshness.Some of the 2012s here are almost too much of a good thing, but there are many stunning examples in 2012.

Winemaker Jacques Lardiere, who seemed as full of energy in November as ever despite the brutally busy season around the Hospices de Beaune auction weekend, officially retired at the end of December after more than a quarter century in charge of winemaking here, and it will not be quite the same visiting Jadot in the future. But this important producer will be in good hands under new technical director Frederic Barnier, who has worked alongside Lardiere in recent years. It crossed my mind that Lardiere has been responsible for crafting a greater number of outstanding Burgundies during his career, both red and white, than anyone else I am aware of, and there will be many more from the 2011 vintage (not to mention 2012). Jadot harvested pinot noir during the first ten days of September, said Barnier, bringing in fruit with 11.8% to 12.5% potential alcohol and generally chaptalizing about half a degree. The pHs are not low (they're generally in the 3.6 to 3.7 range), but, said Barnier, "it's an early vintage without an early-vintage character." Incidentally, Lardiere pointed out that Beaune was a favored appellation in the context of the Cote de Beaune in 2011, but that vintage 2010 was tougher for this village.

I tasted an amazing range of 2010 reds at Jadot with long-term winemaker Jacques Lardière and his successor Frédéric Barnier. In order to make this large section of the report easier to read, I have broken up the wines into the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits. Lardière and Barnier told me they were quite worried about the prospects for the harvest upon their return from summer vacations in August, but the year was saved by a perfect September. Yields are down 25-50% because of the frost and cold weather earlier in the year, but overall quality is very high. Lardière and Barnier also noted that early on it appeared that there would be a wide gap in quality between the Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits, but over time that gap narrowed to some extent. Still, there is little question the vintage was more challenging in the Côte de Beaune because of a rainier summer and overall higher precipitation throughout the year.

Jacques Lardiere was one of a very few winemakers who discussed the importance of doing a saignee to concentrate the musts in 2009. "Especially in vineyards that produced high yields, it was important to do a triage at harvest-time and to do a saignee to get more concentration," he explained, adding that he bled off up to 20% of the juice in numerous cuvees. In fact, he said, he probably should have done more in some of his wines. Yields were typically between 42 and 45 hectoliters per hectare on the Cote de Nuits. In the end, he went on, there are great wines in 2009 but a range of quality: The best will be like the '59s "in the touch of their tannins." Lardiere told me that the average chaptalization in 2009 was 0.6%; the addition of sugar was mostly to compensate for evaporation during the long macerations. Jadot planned to start bottling at the beginning of 2011.

Winemaker Jacques Lardiere describes his young 2008 reds as "spicy and minerally wines." He gives the Cote de Nuits the clear edge over the Cote de Beaune. Jadot eliminated about 30% of the fruit from their Cote de Beaunevineyards ("due more to rot than to underripe grapes"), but there was much less damage to the fruit further north. During the course of our tasting he compared the 2008s to the 2001s. The 2007s that I retasted in their finished form have turned out very well, with the best of them displaying wonderfully fresh and high-pitched aromatics for the vintage.

"I said from the beginning that the 2007 reds would be better than the whites," Jacques Lardiere reminded me as we began our marathon barrel tasting of the new vintage in Jadot's capacious dark cellar. "There's great minerality in the pinots, and it's rare to have minerality in wines that are supple and pleasant early on. The 2007 reds have soft, silky tannins but they also have power," he added. "The flavor really stays on the palate." At various times during our tasting, Lardiere described a number of 2007s as better than the 2005s and compared the 2007 vintage to his 1993s. The Jadot team did a particularly strong selection in its Cote de Beaune pinot parcels, eliminating up to 25% to 30% of the fruit. (Kobrand Inc., New York, NY) Also recommended: Pernand-Vergelesses Clos de la Croix de Pierre (85-87).

Jacques Lardiere, who doesn't rush to judge each new vintage, seemed still to be pondering the quality of the 2006 reds in November, preferring instead simply to allow the wines to make themselves in Jadot's cold cellar. "There's a sharp quality to some of the Cote de Beaune wines," he told me, adding that the climate was more difficult in this area and that the wines were a bit awkward when they went into barrel. Still, the vintage has a good balance, he said, and there's a possibility that some 2006 cuvees, especially from the Cote de Nuits, might eventually be more successful than their counterparts from 2005, owing to the effects of some drought stress early in the '05 season. Incidentally, last fall Lardiere spoke of the importance of bottling 2005s with their energy intact, and it's exactly this quality that makes his top wines from this vintage among the stars of an outstanding year.

Jacques Lardiere conducted his usual vinification in 2005, which included 12 days of post-fermentation maceration. According to Lardiere, there's a lot of great wine in 2005 and a lot of good wine. The vintage as a whole is characterized by "very strong tannins," he said. "The wines need a feminine quality, and they need to have sufficient energy. And of course they need time. Some winemakers rushed their wines, manipulated them, rather than showing patience." On the subject of energy, I notice that I frequently score the finished Jadot wines at the high end of my initial projected ranges-a testament to Lardiere's uncanny ability to bring the inherent energy of the soil into the bottle.

Almost predictably, Jacques Lardiere took a somewhat different approach from the majority of his fellow winemakers in Burgundy in 2004. For starters, he used more new oak than usual in 2004:normally 50% and up for the crus. Lardiere noted that the low temperature of Jadot's cellar gave many of the wines a rather hard tannic impression in November; and of course some of the malos were very late here. "The wines will be silkier than what we see now," is the way he put it. Lardiere carried out what he described as his "normal maceration," which means 16 to 24 days of total time on the skins-or a good 8 to 10 days less than a "big year" like '99.

"Why, with the ripest fruit since 1947, and perfectly healthy grape skins, isn't 1997 a great vintage?" I asked winemaker Jacques Lardiere. "It is," he said simply, and then proceeded to show me a set of wines with the headspinning richness of the best Burgundies made in the '40s and '50s. "The problem in Burgundy, though, is that people have become too technological," Lardiere explained. "They lack confidence in the balance of their fruit; they're always thinking in terms of controlling their material, of bringing the vintage back into balance. And then there were the growers who picked too early, before the enzymes and polyphenols were ripe enough to permit easy extraction of color and flavor. There was too much water in the berries at the beginning of the harvest; later picking brought a concentration of sugars and acids." x000D x000D Jadot took maximum advantage of the great ripeness of '97 by harvesting late. According to Lardiere, the house was the last to finish picking on the Cote de Nuits, bringing in the last pinot noir after the chardonnay. Lardiere then did his normal very long cuvaison which lasted 33 to 36 days in '97. (At Jadot new state-of-the-art winery, the new destemmer allows a higher percentage of berries to go into the fermenter uncrushed.) Lardiere is confident that 1997 is an epic vintage of extraordinary richness that will last in bottle for decades. In fact, he not at all convinced that the '96s will age longer, due to the larger size of the crop in the earlier year (in some crus, Jadot did a saignee of as much as 20% in '96). Lardiere is especially high on the '97s from Gevrey Chambertin, which feature the ripest fruit from those parcels he has ever seen. Crop levels were down sharply in '97; only Clos Vougeot and Corton Pougets produced "full" yields. Tasting here in January was a bit of a challenge, as the wines were at various stages of their evolutions. Most of the Jadot '97s underwent very late malolactic fermentations, and many of them had been racked ("essentially for the first time," according to Lardiere") during the four to six weeks prior to my late January visit. The difference in quality between the wines from the domain's own vines (i.e., harvested and made by Jadot) and those vinified by Jadot's numerous suppliers has never been more apparent.

Winemaker Jacques Lardiere pointed out that the extremely even ripening that occurred in 1996 partly mitigates the higher yields of the vintage. "All of the flowering in '96 took place in five days," he pointed out. "The result was very homogeneous ripening, from north to south. This is one reason why there are no rough edges in these '96s." Still, because of the size of the crop, Lardiere carried out a saignee "for everything," but particularly in younger vines, and used even less new oak than usual. He appeared more excited over the quality of the '96s in November than he did about the '95s a year earlier. Lardiere employs a very long cuvaison(28 days was the minimum maceration time for the '96s) to break down the tannins, and I was struck by how harmonious the tannins are in '96. The vintage had higher acidity and higher pHs than those of '95, Lardiere notes, and softer tannins are usually linked with higher pH. Incidentally, the '97 crop was vinified at Jadot new state-of-the-art winery, and their new destemmer will allow a higher percentage of berries to go into the fermenter uncrushed.