2023 Clos Vougeot

The 2023 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru includes whole bunches, around 30% from the upper reaches of the vineyard. This also underwent rigorous green harvesting to limit yields. The nose offers blackberry, Earl Grey and touches of wet clay (potters' wheel) on the nose, the stems imparting a very subtle black pepper note. The palate is medium-bodied with crunchy tannins. It boasts plenty of freshness and more bandwidth than the previous vintage, with a vivacious, saline finish. This is very promising. "The 2023 vintage was great," Sylvie Poillot says, beaming. "Of course, we did a green harvest in June, continuing into July for some parcels, as there were too many grapes. I noticed nine bunches per vine in Gevrey-Chambertin La Justice, also Savigny-lès-Beaune, so we cut it to four per vine. August was cool. We started picking on August 30 and finished September 28, starting with the whites and finishing with the Evocelles in Gevrey. It was a long harvest, as we wanted to wait for ripening, stopping for two days when there was rain on September 19 and 20. The yield is 53 hl/ha for the whites and 43 hl/ha for the reds. There was no chaptalization. The highest alcohol was in Charmes-Chambertin at 13.5%, but around 12.5% average for the reds." "We are now doing a shorter élevage. We use five different coopers: Damy and Chassin for the whites, with the reds in Rousseau, Mercurey and François Frères. We receive the wood in June with medium toasting, a mixture of 228, 350 and 450- liter barrels. No more than 20% new oak is used across the range. Bottling was in December instead of April (since 2021). Also, we are now bottling using Trescases instead of Amorim. There will be new cuvées in 2024: 0.40-hectares in Mazoyères- Chambertin, land farmed by Arnaud Mortet that has now been acquired."