Jean-Philippe Fichet is very excited with his 2013s, which he picked before the weekend of bad weather. He has also refined his techniques in the cellar, pressing the grapes for longer and settling out the juice less than before; both methods aimed at enhancing the vineyard character of each plot and making less ‘technical’ wines. A lovely range.

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.

The Château de Puligny, run by Etienne de Montille on behalf of its owners for the previous decade, was purchased by Etienne and his sister Alix in 2012. They already knew what they wanted to do with the property: sell off the least interesting vineyards, switch a couple of cuvées across to their family domaine and concentrate on a more limited, coherent range of appellations for the château. As it happens, the range has been further reduced by hail. The estate is now certified organic, having been farmed biodynamically since 2005, and with the benefit of Alix’s proven skills as a white wine maker, the wines are already showing a greater sense of purity and definition.

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.

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.

This is a scintillating and electric wine, with real density of fruit and brilliant length. Somehow it manages to be both silky and steely at the same time .
Jasper Morris MW - Burgundy Director

Etienne de Montille thinks he has made brilliant 2011s and we are inclined to agree with him. They have freshness, balance, low alcohol, good acidity, excellent fruit and wonderful tannin integration. Picking began on 27th August and continued through to the 9th September as individual vineyards ripened. The fruit has attractively ripe flavours while rarely getting beyond 12.5% alcohol and Etienne chose to include slightly fewer stems than in recent vintages, except for the top Cuvées. Certain wines are available in magnum and double magnum formats, please contact us if they are of interest to you.

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.

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.