The 2009 Vintage
The climatic conditions
The 2009 winter has been long and rigorous: January and February showed indeed average temperatures below the normal of the season. The mildness of beginning of March will be quickly forgotten by new winter incursions at the end of the second period of ten days. Spring will really install from April with high temperatures which will contribute to a fast reawakening of the vegetation. Thus, from April 12, the bud burst of the vine is observed, date which is in the average of the last 15 years.
At the beginning of May, the weather is cold but the summer installs in a few days. This month is very soft, even summery. In this way the evolution of the vegetation is fast and some flowers are already observed in the earlier plots. The mid-flowering stage is reached on the first days of June, neighbouring dates from 2003. The flowering which enjoys very favourable conditions takes place quickly.
With the exception of the rest of the 2009 year that was rather as a dry year, June and July will present excess of the usual precipitation. The vine plant will take advantage of this wet period to develop maturity. A hot and sunny weather set up then from August until mid-October. The “véraison” (change of colour of the grape berries) will begin soon and finish around August 20th in the majority of plots. The beautiful temperatures will allow an end of maturation in optimal conditions and a perfect sanitary state of the crop in September.
The harvests
This beautiful summer end gave an ideal ripening of the grapes and the pips, which allowed us to extend our vatting to extract the quintessence. The beautiful quality of the harvest and the perfect sanitary state of the crop offered a high richness of natural sugars and a good sugar/acidity balance.
Analogy with numbers in Burgundy ? Fate of climatology or mystery of numerology ?
We started the harvesting on Wednesday 09/09/2009, simply because the time has come...
We cut the first bunches in the vineyards at Savigny Les Beaune for the “Villages” and “Premiers Crus” wines, then at Beaune in the plot “Les Avaux” and in the afternoon at Pernand Vergelesses. On Thursday, 10th we finished Pernand and we came back in Côte de Nuits for the Bourgogne Passetoutgrain “Aux Rouges Champs”.
Friday was devoted to harvesting at Gevrey Chambertin, Chambolle Musigny and then on Saturday at the Clos de Vougeot, Vougeot 1er Cru and a part of Grands-Echezeaux. On Sunday September, 13th the picking continued on the Grands-Echezeaux, in the Echezeaux and Echezeaux “Vieille Vigne”. On Monday 14th one team harvested the Richebourg and Nuits St Georges 1er Cru “Les Boudots” and a second team at Fixin, Fixin “Les Fondemens” and Marsannay “Clos du Roy”. Picking continued on Tuesday 15 at Vosne Romanée 1er Cru “Les Orveaux”, “Les Suchots”, “Les Petits Monts” and at Nuits St Georges “Les Plateaux”.
Harvested at the end of this month, on the 24th and 25th, the grapes of the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits took advantage of these beautiful days of September.
The wines
The 2009 vintage promises to join the Burgundian myth of the years finished with 9…
The red wines reveals deep and brilliant red colours and a wonderful aromatic power of red and ripe black mixed with spicy notes. The tannic potential is present and exalts the opulence of the wines both with complexity and roundness of tannin and with wealth and balance. White wines are both lively and structured with beautiful aromatic textures, a nice balance and perfect harmony.