tasting / laying down / 2021 Burgundy


part of a program to clear the forest of 400ha (1,000 acres) of non-native trees. Producers are campaigning against this, concerned about the impact of spring storms on vineyards without this barrier. July and August had below-average


temperatures and sunshine, while rainfall was above average. Things cleared up from mid-August, but the disease pressure was high, particularly for vines with weakened resistance. It is unusual to have both mildew and odium at the same time. This required strict work in the vineyard during the summer, with timely spraying and many hours of green work— trimming and leaf-removal. Biodynamic producers found that horsetail, rich in silica, helped with the mildew. At Rossignol-Trapet, they add it to their copper sprays (Demeter limits copper to 3kg/ha), together with essential orange oils to dry the mold on the leaves. Others are taking more radical steps.


Sylvian Pataille and Domaine Trapet are experimenting with échalas or single- stake vines, known as Pesseaux in Burgundy. (This was the traditional way of training before tractors necessitated that vines are trellised in rows supported by post and wires.) In theory, each vine, standing alone, has better aeration than within a row, lowering its susceptibility to mildew. Moreover, Louis Trapet feels his vineyard team engages with a single vine and cares for it more as an individual. The stakes are high: 6ft 3in (1.9m) at


Trapet, while in Sylvian Pataille’s vineyards, the stakes are no higher than the withers of a horse or they catch the harness doing the plowing. By not cutting the apex, but arching the shoots, which grow to over 6ft 6in (2m), the fruit is shaded. This approach has proved helpful in the recent run of hot vintages, when Louis Trapet found it reduced the number of burned berries. But he also discovered that it closes the gap between sugar development and phenolic ripeness—useful in a hot vintage but also in a colder one—and the Trapets are planning to convert all the domaine in Burgundy, as well as in Alsace. Oidium continued unusually late in the season. Sulfur sprays require sunlight to be most effective but were quickly washed off by the rain. Multiple sprays of sulfur were necessary. This may account for the high level of reduction in the wines this vintage. At Domaine de l’Arlot, Géraldine Godot sprays initially with water and salt to clean the vine, then with a sulfur


170 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023


spray. It keeps sulfur levels lower, but the wines were still slightly reduced. If producers did not spray multiple times (Thibault Manuel is typical in spraying 13 times), they will have used one or possibly two systemic sprays. Many top producers, including Mugneret- Gibourg in Vosne and plenty in Chablis, use systemic products in poor vintages. Few own up, unless directly questioned, but I admire Isabelle Raveneau and Benoit Droin, who fessed up without being asked. They argue strongly that it is more environmental and sustainable to use a judicious systemic spray, where the product is taken into the sap, rather than multiple contact sprays, when in rainy conditions the copper and sulfur is washed off onto the soil. Moreover, frequent tractor passes compact the soil and create more diesel fumes. Too many producers dissemble,


capitalizing on organic credentials, while keeping their options open by not being certified organic. It’s heartening that several producers, including the tiny Chapelle de Blagny and the larger Domaine Faiveley, have decided to apply for organic certification on the basis that they made it through the difficult 2021 using only copper and sulfur. With disease, there were fewer healthy


leaves for sugar production, and green- harvesting Pinot Noir was important in the places unaffected by frost. Arnaud Mortet, who suffered large losses because most of his parcels are on the north side of Gevrey, crop-thinned the village vineyards, which lie on the flat below Chambertin. All the conscientious producers spoke of cutting fruit. Eduardo Clair used a laborious process removing individual berries from compact bunches in Bèze and Bonnes Mares, reducing the risk of botrytis. Harvesting was not straightforward.


Larger producers found that parcels didn’t ripen in the usual order. Moreover, ripening within parcels was uneven, as fruit came from different generations of buds. At Drouhin, they picked some places twice. It was a harvest in which experienced pickers were a real asset but one where harvesters of any description were scarce, with Covid restrictions and students back to their studies. Choosing the date was difficult— neither too early nor too late, because of botrytis. Harvesting started around September 15 for Pinot Noir and finished by the end of the month. It started around


September 21 for Chardonnay. Despite the small crop, producers needed large teams to catch the window of opportunity. A much higher proportion of Chardonnay was harvested by machine in 2021. Some vintages are made in the vineyard, others in the winery—but perhaps this is the vintage of the table de tri. There is no such thing as a bad vintage when only the best fruit makes it into the winery. As the sorting table became widely adopted on the Côte d’Or, it caused the most significant uplift in quality and consistency across every vintage in Burgundy. Of course, it really comes into its own in a vintage such as 2021, particularly where the fruit is purchased. Some producers go one step further. Christophe Perrot-Minot had some very unexciting village Gevrey, but the few remaining berries, having journeyed over two tables de tri and through an optical sorting machine, looked perfect: glistening black berries; grapes like caviar, as Natalie Tollot-Beaut describes them. The results from optical sorting


machines can be exceptional, though I am ambivalent about them. They make everything too perfect, stripping away some of the character of the vintage. But for négociant fruit in a difficult vintage, why not? In any event, they are so expensive that few producers are likely to invest in them. Even so, I am encountering them more often than I’d like. The yields were tiny, especially for


Chardonnay. A combination of frost and disease meant that most producers lost from half to two thirds of their crop. The worst affected places—among them Blagny, where there was snow—produced just 15 percent of a normal harvest. With yields ranging from 5hl/ha to


45hl/ha for Chardonnay, there was very little must on the market for négociants. At Olivier Leflaive, Franck Grux was not alone in struggling to secure good must or grapes from his usual growers. Only one of his suppliers, who happened to prune late, delivered the usual quantity. Contracts were broken, and eye-watering prices were paid for poor-quality fruit. Expect fewer négociant wines from the domaines that run this activity as a sideline.


Analysis For Pinot Noir, where yields were low, there was decent concentration, with alcohol in the ballpark of 11.5% to 12.5%, some grands crus reaching 12.8%. Not bad,


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