More wines from Côte de Nuits than Côte de Beaune, wonderful yields, and bigger volumes for the reds (45 hl/ha on average) than the whites (55 hl/ha) despite debudding in May.

However, we should not hide the fact that the winemaking process was complex this year, a real long-distance race that continued unabated, juggling the vats that the estate fortunately had in sufficient numbers to get us through the fermentation process, which luckily went rather quickly.

This substantial volume limited the overall harvest, which took up more space in the vat, but this benefited the Grand Crus Musigny, Bonnes Mares and Charmes-Chambertin. The skins were lovely with less structure than in 2022, but still released beautiful colours during pressing.

As always, ripeness checks on the Bienvenues grapes were impressive. Malolactic fermentation began in the whites once the sugars were depleted, and fairly late in the reds.

The last wines were placed in barrels on 10th November, nearly two and a half months after the start of the harvests, a month more than usual... And since then, we have performed two lots of yeast stirring for the whites, and topping up every 15 days.

We then also had the opportunity to perform maturation testing on this exceptional vintage in a very long cigar-shaped barrel with a smaller croze, 265 litres (rather than the usual 228) in size, for the Clos Blanc blend. This study is being conducted by Clément, our BTS apprentice. A few years ago, we matured a batch in a specific barrel. It will be interesting to see how the barrel shape affects the wine’s flavour. More to follow…

We are eagerly awaiting the first tastings, which will finally reveal the outlines of the vintage that is still waiting in the wings… We cannot wait to explore it!