Top Chassagne & Puligny-Montrachet 2023 wines en primeur

Top producers in 2023: Domaine Alvina Pernot Domaine des Comtes Lafon Domaine Jean Chartron Domaine Leflaive Domaine Michel Bouzereau Scroll down for Charles Curtis MW's top-scoring Chassagne- and Puligny-Montrachet 2023 wines [subscriber-content]The challenges posed by 2023 were different for Chardonnay producers. Due to its thicker skin, it is less affected by higher yields than Pinot Noir. Acidity is the paramount consideration for Chardonnay, since colour and tannin are not a factor. Accordingly, the harvest date becomes even more crucial here than elsewhere. Growers based in Puligny were generally pleased with their results; like their colleagues in Meursault, they tended to pick early. Perhaps the earliest start to the harvest was that of Pierre Vincent Girardin, who told me that he began on 23 August, noting that Domaine Leroy and Domaine Leflaive also picked early in 2023. Domaine des Comtes Lafon also picked fairly early, starting on 26 August. The domaine’s Pierre Lafon says: ‘The fruit didn't look ripe, but the degree went up fast.’ Several estates, including Pierre Vincent Girardin and Alvina Pernot in Puligny, had picked all their Chardonnay in August to retain acidity and left the reds until after the heat wave. An August harvest for Chardonnay was also the procedure at Bouchard Père et Fils, which has now halted its négociant contracts to focus on the domaine-owned wines, since it owns some of the finest Chardonnay vineyards in the Côte de Beaune. ‘We picked the Chardonnay first since there was not as much dilution and there was more potential alcohol,’ says technical director Frédéric Weber. ‘Rigorous sorting was needed, but it was also important to pick quickly. We had a team of 200, but we had to be everywhere at the same time. We had to sort some plots for rot and others for sunburn; we reduced yield by 10%-15% due to sorting.’ Great whites Jérôme Flous from Domaine Faiveley says: ‘Overall, we feel that the whites will be more serious than the red – we think the reds are loveable, but the whites are grand.’ Frédéric Barnier at Louis Jadot was cautiously optimistic: ‘Some will say that Chardonnay ended up with too much sugar and not enough acidity, although in truth analysis show them to be fairly similar to 2022. The profile is one of opulence and richness. The level of the pH is roughly comparable to 2022, but the potential alcohol is 13.7-13.8.’ To ensure freshness, Barnier blocked the malolactic conversion on some wines. Results overall showed that despite the challenges of the year, careful winemakers were able to produce lovely wines. Alvina Pernot and her team finished picking their domaine parcels by 1 September. Chassagne producer Domaine Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey was not far behind. Pierre-Yves’ youngest son Clément explains that they began in the Côte de Beaune on 30 August and finished, after the rain on 12 September, with the plots in the Hautes-Côtes and the cooler locations in St-Aubin. He notes that the early-picked wines were initially thin but have put on flesh as they have aged. Concentration was improved by the slightly troubled flowering (coulure) in the Chardonnay in the southern Côte de Beaune and losses of about 15% in the hailstorm two weeks before the harvest that reduced yields and concentrated the fruit. [/subscriber-content] COMING SOON Score table listing Charles Curtis MW's top Burgundy 2023 wines all scoring 94 points or above

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