The 2005 vintage in the Côte d’Or
A great vintage
Features of the climate
The climatic year 2005 was greatly influenced by the North-East wind which blew throughout the vegetative cycle. The climate was characterised by dry weather with no excessive heat, which is ideal for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
- Monthly average temperatures were close to normal throughout the
year.
- Little rainfall throughout the year, which was brought mainly by storms.
- Good sunshine throughout the year, close to normal.
- Dry, sunny and especially long summer.
The harvest
The "ban des vendanges" i.e. the legal authorisation to pick the grapes was given on September 12th. The harvest took place under ideal weather : little or no rain, mild temperatures, lots of sunshine. The harvest was exceptionally long at our Domaine and we finished on September 28th.
2005 was once again a very early maturing vintage which produced perfectly healthy grapes, which meant that it was hardly necessary to sort them when they arrived at the winery.
Vinification and ageing
The white wines
This is the first year since 1989 that we harvested our whites before our reds. The Chardonnays had a very high level of maturity, beautiful skins and perfectly ripe pips. Since the grapes were of such high quality, we decided to lengthen the pressing to enable longer contact between the skins, the pulp and the juice. We did very light “debourbeage” (i.e. settling of the juice). The musts were developing rich and intense aromas of very sweet white fleshed fruit (peach, mirabelle).
The aging took place in perfect conditions in our new barrel cellars. After a very long alcoholic fermentation achieved between December and Spring, the wines had maintained their youthful characteristics. Month after month the aromatic richness, which they possessed from the start has confirmed itself, with aromas more lemonlike, floral or marked by white fruits.
The red wines
Since the weather was particularly favourable this year, we could choose the ideal date to obtain perfect maturity in each parcel. The differences in the composition of the soils and sub-soils, the age of the vine stocks and the way each vine was trained were paramount in the evolution of the maturing process of each vineyard. Thanks to the summer drought and the coolness of July, the grapes were exceptionally healthy. They were very well formed and of medium size, with thick and deeply coloured skins. In the stainless steel vats, the juice rapidly took a bright and lively colour. Musts expressed straightforward and very expressive flavours of raspberry, blackcurrant, blueberry and blackberry.
After rather long vatting, the wines which were put into oak barrels had deep colour, very intense aromas of red fruit, great structure and long persistency. Although the malolactic fermentations were very long (they finished at the beginning of Summer), it did not change the expression of our wines which have kept great freshness enhanced by some salinity (due to the drought of the summer), which gives a very lingering finish. The vintage has evolved very slowly all along the barrel ageing.
Our wines at the moment
We have almost finished the bottlings.
The whites wines are expressing a great purity, helped by the remarkable salinity of the vintage and by the careful choice of the harvest date for each parcel of our Domaine.
The red wines have kept astonishing freshness. The most striking thing is that they already have a lot of depth, while keeping a great potential for development.
All the assets are gathered to make of 2005, a very great year both in white and red, in which the hierarchy and the typicity of each terroir are particularly well marked.
March 1st, 2007
