There have been some changes in vinification this year, making the wines a little more Jean-Marc Roulot in style: the grapes are now crushed before pressing, there is less settling of the juice, very little new wood is used and the wines are racked into tank after a year but still kept on their lees. The grapes were picked during the last week in September. Overall, this is an excellent result for the team at Château de Puligny.

Jacques Lardière is now in charge of a new project in Oregon, after 40 years at Louis Jadot, and Frédéric Barnier is fully installed in Beaune in his place. In principal, however, there are not expected to be any changes to the winemaking. Frédéric describes 2012 as a superb vintage for reds with very healthy grapes, despite the difficult growing season. He notes the exceptionally concentrated fruit coupled with good acidity. He just had to take care to avoid over firm tannins. The whites were more difficult but their practice of retaining a proportion of the malic acid has been useful this year. All the whites are now bottled with DIAM corks.

Jean-Baptiste reports hardly any hail damage in 2013 but the crop was nonetheless limited by cold damp weather at the flowering. He began picking on 26th September, with all the whites picked before the wet weekend. Malolactic fermentation took a little longer than usual but no real problems in the cellar. The wines will be bottled in December, or January for the Premiers Crus.

The old order changeth slowly at Maison Louis Jadot. Veteran winemaker Jacques Lardire is still very much in charge, but his eventual successor Frdric is starting to play a more prominent role. Dont expect a revolution, but a little evolution is doubtless possible. The acidity of 2010 very much suits the Jadot white wine style, while their fullish extraction of Pinot Noir has worked notably well in several red cuves such as the Volnay, Clos de la Barre which we have selected for the first time this year. Where the wines come from one of the various Jadot domaines we supply the relevant information in brackets.

Arnaud Ente is always one of the first to pick. His meticulous vineyard work and low yields encourage early ripeness, so in 2010 he could start on 15th September. The yield is much the same as 2008 and Arnaud notes similar acidity readings, but with much more flesh on the palate and finer aromatics. The label has also been fine-tuned this year and is now exceptionally handsome. Overall, these are breath-taking wines.

This micro-domaine continues to make some of the most sublime white wines in all of Burgundy but there is so little made that Arnaud and Marie-Odile are somewhat under the radar. Their meticulous work in the vineyards mean that yields are always low, though they hope to do better than their 19 hl/ha in 2012 and 26 hl/ha in 2013. The 2012s enjoyed long slow fermentations, so the wines were quite backward when tasted in November. The reds are also very fine this year.