Louis Jadot Beaune Grèves Le Clos Blanc Premier Cru “Famille Gagey” 2020

REGION: France | Burgundy | Côte d’Or | Beaune
GRAPES: 100% Chardonnay
PH: n/a
ACIDITY: n/a
ABV: 13.5%
AGING: 15 months on fine lees.

This unusual rare and rather exotic white wine is full, rich and spicy, with broad fruit flavors and exceptional depth offset by notes of almonds, earth and gently toasted oak.

Mixed salads, soja salad, vegetable tempura, seafood , sushis, nems, cheviche, salmon tartar, vegetarian cuisine : vegetable tart, fennel, zucchini fritters, vegetable gratin, wok noodles, vegan burger, fish & chips, chicken yakitori, escargots, oeuf en meurette, frog legs with parsley, goat cheese.

Grapes are harvested by hand and put in small cases in order not to damage the fruits. Grapes are pressed softly, they ferment in oak barrels produced by our cooperage. One-third are new barrels. Aging usually lasts 15 months on fine lees before bottling.

This will begin opening up in 5 years, and continue to mature for at least 10 years beyond the vintage date.

Winter 2019-20 in the Côte d’Or was, once again, extremely mild, particularly in February. It was also a dry winter, throughout the period of January to March. Nevertheless, the last few months of 2019 brought enough rainfall to replenish the water reserves in the soils. This mild weather continued throughout March, and in the more sheltered areas vegetative growth was seen very early on, towards the end of March. The first days of April were cooler, and helped to slow the pace of growth slightly, but things picked up again during the last half of the month, when temperatures rose to around 25°C. These unusual spring conditions are key to understanding the unusual nature of this vintage as the plants were able to synthesize high levels of organic acids. May brought some rainfall, which allowed the vines to continue their growth uninterrupted, and the first flowers were seen on the young Chardonnay vines in mid-May. Full flowering took place towards the end of May and the beginning of June, and the berries swelled rapidly despite the general lack of rainfall. The vines were able to get sufficient water from the reserves laid down in the soil during the winter months. Growth was not entirely even across the region, or even the grape varieties, but we can broadly generalize that it was around three weeks ahead of schedule by midway through flowering point in all of our vineyards, relative to the previous year. The dry conditions meant that there was little concern over fungal diseases before summer arrived. Summer announced itself with the first hints of veraison right at the start of July. Burgundy sweltered through several heatwaves. The extremely dry weather slowed the pace of veraison by the end of July, particularly among the vines carrying the heaviest weight of bunches. Nevertheless, by the end of July, veraison had more or less passed the midway point, and the leaves remained green. The vines were coping well with the conditions. The slopes were hit by a further heatwave in mid-August, and the more fragile plants began showing signs of hydric stress, with a yellowing at the base of their leaves. Veraison finished, despite the lack of rainfall, and ripening accelerated, with Pinot Noir taking the lead over most of the Chardonnay vines. The dry weather concentrated the berries, and no rainfall was expected before the end of August. The grapes were very healthy, with no trace of mildew or rot, but they would have to finish ripening without further rainfall. We began harvesting the earliest Pinot Noir sectors (Volnay, Meursault, Beaune, Savigny) on 19 August. A week later, we began picking the white grapes and in the Côte de Nuits. Finally, a few showers brought some respite towards the end of August, but not enough rain fell to make up for the accumulated deficit. Our harvest was finished by the start of a warm, summery September. In terms of yields, the reds were at around the same level as in 2019, which is to say around two thirds of a normal harvest. The whites were a little bit more generous, even given that the grapes gave slight more juice than usual.