Chardonnay: under the settee during thunderstorms
When it's ripe, Chardonnay is very susceptible to an electrical storm. The activity can turn the skins brown almost instantly, so watching the weather forecast in the days approaching a harvest in today's area of the Cote d'Or is vital. So what have our growers presented us with? Allowing for the vagaries of the cask sample and that I would say this, wouldn't I, overall it's a very impressive set of wines.
Charles at Ballot-Millot is playing his part in doing a little redefining of Meursault with wines that have immense terroir definition and more than a little stoniness in the mix. The different crus show different flavours and retain the village's trademark richness. At Hubert et Olivier Lamy we've got another example of a young family member who has grasped the reins and is leading the domaine with commitment, huge energy and skill, all qualities reflected in the wines.
Tessier pings with energy and personality, both of the owners and the wines, which are vivid and have big presence and identifiable terroir character. Production here is small and the vines are farmed pragmatically, so organic when possible and much use of compost but they will protect the fruit with sprays in a year like 2013.
At Bernard Moreau Alex showed a beguiling set of wines that continue to spotlight the family's stardom in Chassagne. As ever the Bourgogne is incredible value, but village and 1er crus were extremely rewarding and all different.
Thierry at Paul Pillot has a range of wines that on the day were a little muted, though the London tastings revealed even more than the barrel ones back in November. A tad leaner at the moment than Moreau's offerings, they are still putting on flesh and have all the constituents to make complete, complex and deeply satisfying wines.
Philippe Colin is another consistently brilliant grower, with clean and modern facilities and making huge efforts to ensure that his wines, though drinkable young, will age more than gracefully.
Another Colin - you just can't have enough of 'em - is Damien at Marc Colin. He's a confident and accomplished grower and we're in danger of starting to take the consistently high quality for granted. No danger of this for Damien, however as he continues to tweak, now using more, larger barrels to achieve more tension in his wines, they also benefit from more CO2 retention and less oxygen. He has also reduced the length of time the wines spend in wood and increased the period in stainless steel.
So these visits were a joy in 2013. There was a palpable sense of relief that despite the depradations of the season growers had made an extremely creditable set of wines. /CW
Offered subject to remaining unsold for shipment 2015/16
