The 2008 Vintage
The climatic conditions
The 2008 year begins with a soft, rather dry winter. February is particularly sunny and this entails the tears of the vine until mid-March. The beginning of spring is rather cool and damp.
The wake up of the vegetation is however perceptible to April 20 and the bud burst then is showing about 10 days late on the average of the last 14 years.
The mildness of the first two weeks of May accelerates the development of the vegetation and in part allows it to catch up. From May 15 and till the first days of the summer, a disturbed weather begins.
The flowering starts timidly and achieves a full flowering stage around June 14. A cold weather and a significant pluviometry will entail locally coulure phenomena (or millerandage: partial crop failure with smaller grape berries that reduces considerably the harvest).
On the whole July is sunny and the stage of berry touch is reached on the 15th in most of the plots. The first half of August is cool and rainy, the maturation progress is very slow and beginning of ripening is observed around August, 11 only. Fortunately, the last week is hot and sunny and allows the end of ripening and the evolution of maturity.
In early September the weather is again gloomy but from 14, a dry beautiful cool and windy weather begins on a long-term basis. The vine then benefits from the sunshine to complete its maturation. The North wind leads to a concentration of sugar in the grape berries and the coolness of this month leads to a very satisfactory sanitary state of the crop.
The harvests
The harvesting went in a sky sometimes covered. The nights were very fresh (5-6 °C at daybreak). But everything went off smoothly under very good condition with soft and pleasant temperatures (about 22 ° C).
We cut the first bunches on Monday September, 22 in the vineyards Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire and Passetoutgrain, then the next day at Beaune 1er Cru « Les Avaux » and on September, 23 at Savigny Les Beaune for the “Villages” and “Premiers Crus” wines. The next day 25th we harvested the grapes in Pernand Vergelesses, Vosne Romanée as well as Echezeaux that we finished at the same time as Fixin on the 26th. The weekend 27th and 28th was spent harvesting in the Grands Crus: Grands-Echezeaux, Echezeaux « Vieille Vigne », Richebourg, Clos de Vougeot.
Picking continued on Monday, 29th in Nuits St Georges, Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny and Vosne Romanée 1er cru and the 30th in Nuits St Georges « Les Plateaux » and in Vosne Romanée 1er Cru « Les Suchots ». The day after, on October 1st we harvested the grapes at the white regional appellation and at Marsannay « Clos du Roy » and we finished on Friday, 2nd at the regional appellations “Bourgogne Pinot Noir”. At the beginning of October the weather conditions were particularly favourable. We harvested the Hautes-Côtes vineyards from October, 10 to 12 and the nature gave us beautiful sound grapes and an optimal maturity.
The wines
The 2008 vintage made light of the vagaries of the nature: the good maturity of the berries happened thanks to the concentration because the drying of the soils and the water loss due to the North wind have reduced volumes and increased the grape sugars. This beautiful harvest is the result of an "haute couture" work: expertise, patience, great work of observation and regular monitoring of the plots, careful selective picking of grapes at the winery with all the necessary human resources.
The red wines are as the great classics of Burgundy with deep color, beautiful red and black fruits aromas, round and silky tannins as well as a rich acidity. The wines are structured, concentrated and complex, with great aromatic purity and a good potential of ageing.
The white wines have a high acidity which emphasizes pure aromas of fresh fruit like the great vintages. The wines are clean and powerful, well balanced and therefore very promising.