2020 is an exceptional vintage – a very pure wine, mouth-filling but elegant, and with velvety tannins. The only downside is the quantity … but thankfully there’s no need to choose between quality and quantity.
One again, this year brought sun, but also drought, to the vineyard. We began the harvest on 13 September; conditions were ideal, resulting in sun-soaked grapes, with a perfect balance. The quantities were certainly a little lower (about 30%), but this is wonderfully compensated by the quality… so we’re still smiling.
Perfect weather conditions in the spring, and a particularly hot summer saved by opportune rains, meant the vine produced exceptionally mature and healthy grapes, resulting in a balance that will bring pleasure to everyone.
A slight adrenalin rush in early May when frost threatened, but the season was uneventful (at last…) and everyone could smile again. The quality of the grapes was excellent, no problem with the vinification, everything went smoothly. Expressive of red fruit, the wines have produced a very pleasurable vintage.
Our harvest was very small, to be sure, but the balance and concentration of the grapes were outstanding. So wines from this vintage are extremely intense, balanced and generous.
Luck was on our side in Nuits Saint Georges, Ladoix and Aloxe Corton. We began grape-picking on September 12th on a beautifully sunny day, and the sunshine lasted throughout the week it took for the harvest: beautiful grapes, perfectly ripe and healthy – the wine-grower’s dream!
All this after an extremely damp Spring everywhere (we even came across ducks swimming amongst our vines… it’s true, and we hadn’t been at the Nuits Saint Georges before starting work…).
Consequently, harvesting would start at Ladoix on October 3rd, followed by Nuits Saint Georges on October 5th. It was bitterly cold, but that didn’t discourage the grape-pickers, who kept working thanks to lots of hot coffee and hot soup. But at least we wouldn’t need to cool the harvest!