Pressoir.wine Session - 2012 Vintage Recap

Edouard Bourgeois
January 17, 2023

“What do you smell?” or “what food is best with this wine?” are questions I have been asked many times as a sommelier. But the one that might be even more common is “when is the best time to drink this bottle?” That last question, just like the other two, is never easy to answer. Although there is no doubt that some wines are meant for aging and others are deliberately made in a way that suggests early drinking, it remains a matter of personal taste. When it comes to Champagne for example, I like to feel effervescence and a vintage Champagne from the 60’s or even the 70’s is typically not my go-to. I know plenty of people who love these old Champagnes however…

Anyway, I thought that trying to understand how time affects a bottle of wine would be an interesting topic to discuss at a Pressoir Session. So I selected six wines with a decade of age, all from the 2012 vintage and from various regions of France, to see how a similar bottle age affects each wine differently, depending on the grape variety, the region and the winemaking style. And the goal was ultimately to determine which one showed best which turned out to be an engaged and polarized response from the attendees.

2012 was not an easy vintage for most French wine regions.

The damp summer that affected Burgundy gave mildew an ideal terrain to develop, forcing vignerons to drastically sort rotten grapes, resulting in low volumes at harvest. The quality can be very high in some places however, with soft tannins in red and concentrated whites. Champagne fared better and 2012 is recognized as an exceptional vintage with very healthy grapes and it is not surprising that most Champagne houses decided to declare the vintage for their prestige cuvée. The Rhône did good too and the particularity of the year was lower alcohol levels and quite surprisingly lower acidity levels too with some rigidity to Condrieu.

Here is a recap of the wines:

Champagne Pierre Paillard, Les Maillerettes Bouzy Grand Cru 2012

Pierre Paillard owns 11 Ha in Bouzy. Pinot noir 70%, Chardonnay 30%, 25 plots, average 30 years in age

Les Maillerettes (36Ares|0,9 Acre plot) is a single vineyard, single variety (Pinot Noir) and single vintage champagne crafted every year since 2007 and farmed sustainably. It was planted in 1970.

The wines are fermented in oak and aged sur lies for 11 months before bottling. Les Maillerettes then  benefits from extended aging“ sur lie”: 5 years in the 19th century cellars.

Dosage: 2 grams per liter (Extra-Brut) Soil: pure chalk with only 50 centimeters (20in) of clay topsoil.

The wine was incredible and maybe my favorite. Champagne has a long history of aging its wines for an extended period of time.

Domaine Moreau Naudet, Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons 2012

Moreau-Naudet's holdings in Vaillons are around 1.7 hectares of 35-50 year old vines.

Fermentation is always with indigenous yeast, followed by a long maceration on lees (3 months). The wine is then aged for an average of 18 months (varies according to the vintage) on lees in a combination of stainless steel and 600-liter French oak barrels, of which only 20% is new.

Moreau-Naudet's holdings in Vaillons are around 1.7 hectares from Roncière, Séchet (75 year old vines) and Epinottes. In the new winery, the barrel room has a thermal floor that helps kick off fermentations.

The Chablis showed a lot of richness that made me a think of the presence of botrytis perhaps. I was expecting a crisper wine and if I knew how the wines showed, I would have served it after the Mâcon rather than before.

Domaine Olivier Merlin, Macon La Roche Vineuse Les Cras 2012

2.5 hour by car from Chablis, Macon produces 45 million bottles on average each year and many of these bottles can be forgetful and not very impressive.

Olivier Merlin however, is an old-school winemaker who prides himself on crafting non-manipulated wines with low yields in the Mâconnais and Olivier makes serious, long-lived, and delicious wines. Since starting his domaine in 1987 he has worked tirelessly to promote the wines of the region and now, as trends have come and gone, Olivier can be considered one of the region’s benchmark producers.

The majority of the wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks with around 10% going into older Burgundian barrels. The wine goes through malolactic fermentation and is bottled after 15 months of aging without being fined.

Superb bottle that should really help people realize the potential of this overlooked part of Burgundy.

Domaine Matrot, Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes 2012

The domaine exists since the early 20th century. It went through farming changes to finally embrace organic viticulture along with ploughing, rigorous pruning and debudding in the spring to help control the yields. If necessary, a green harvest is carried out before veraison. The sanitary state, yields, and maturity are carefully observed.

Long and uneventful fermentations for 8-10 weeks are employed, and the quality of the lees is carefully monitored since they accompany the wine during the maturing process.

Bâtonnage (stirring of the lees) is done according to each vintage.

Chaptalization is avoided whenever possible and the alcohol content is never rectified by more than half a degree in order to maintain the natural balance of the grapes. It is important to recognize and respect variability with each vintage, for example, knowing that one year a grape can be ripe at 12 degrees of potential alcohol, and the following year reach ripeness at 14 degrees.

The wines are matured for 11-12 months in oak barrels with a capacity of 228 liters. One- to five-year-old barrels are used for the white wines and 10-20% new barrels for the reds.

When it comes to the climat Charmes, you enter the very best of Meursault. Matrot owns four plots within Charmes, of which 70% are located in Charmes-Dessus. Les Charmes is a well-balanced wine with both the ampleness of the Charmes-Dessous and the minerality and elegance of the Charmes-Dessus.

We all agreed on the classic profile of this deliciously hazelnutty and buttery Meursault. Quite opulent, I would drink this wine now although a few more years wouldn’t hurt.

Domaine Yves Cuilleron, Condrieu Les Chaillets 2012

The Cuilleron family domaine, located in the hamlet of Verlieu (part of the town of Chavanay), was founded several generations ago (1920). Yves Cuilleron’s grandfather was the first to bottle wine for commercial purposes in 1947. Antoine Cuilleron, the uncle and immediate predecessor of Yves, assumed control of the domaine in 1960 and significantly increased the percentage of wine bottled at the estate and extended the scope of the domaine. Yves assumed full ownership and direction of the domaine in 1987 and, since that time, has built an entirely new facility while at the same time acquiring additional vineyard property. The domaine is now (as of 2012) significantly larger in scope with 52 hectares of vineyards that cover multiple appellations, including principally, Condrieu, Saint Joseph Rouge and Blanc, Cote Rotie, Saint Péray and a series of Vin de Pays from the Collines Rhodaniennes.

A large majority of the vineyards are set on terraces which makes most mechanization difficult, if not impossible. Thus, much of the vineyard work continues to be done by hand. To control yields, Cuilleron does extensive debudding and, when necessary, practices a “green harvest”.

In the cave, the grapes (harvested manually) are fermented using indigenous yeasts. The fermentations of the appellation controlée white wines are done in small barrel of one to four years age; malolactic fermentations are done in barrel as well and the elevage continues for nine months before the wines are bottled.

Condrieu Les Chaillets: This cuvée is sourced from the best exposed and the oldest Viognier vines of the domaine (south-southeast exposure, planted on terraces in the commune of Chavanay). Barrel-fermented and barrel-aged with regular batonnage during the nine-month elevage. The whites are lightly filtered before bottling.

Condrieu is a very unique wine and Viognier may find its most exuberant expression in this appellation. Pineapple, pear and mango exploded from the glass. Low acidity.

Domaine Bruno Clair, Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers 2012

The classic domaine farms around 24 hectares in Marsannay la Cote, at the very northern end of the Côte de Nuits.

The vineyard of Cazetiers is 0.9 ha (2.2 ac) and the domaine’s plot was planted in 1958, 1972, 1996. Direct neighbor of the famous Clos St. Jacques, Cazetiers shares its poor marl soil and limestone deposits.

“For a while, people mentioned a derivation of the word castel, in reference to the position of the climat above the castle of Gevrey-Chambertin. According to Françoise Dumas, the more plausible explanation is that Cazetiers was derived from cassis, which would indicate the presence of wild cassis or red currant bushes.”

Bruno Clair points out an interesting difference between Les Cazetiers and Clos Saint Jacques: In his cellar Les Cazetiers always has a higher pH (lower acidity). This translates into the flavors of the wines, with Cazetiers always feeling like blacker fruit, and Clos-Saint-Jacques like redder fruit.

Because of its location, it lies exclusively on stark white, completely decomposed marl, or terres blanches. Here, it has a very hard, cement-like quality, causing the vines to struggle. The topsoil is only about 10 cm deep and consists of up to 45% gravel and up to 10% cobbles. It is followed by a thick layer of laves, followed by a second layer of terres blanches soil before reaching the limestone bedrock.

Despite the fact that Les Cazetiers is more sheltered from the wind from the Combe de Lavaut than Clos Saint Jacques, Bruno says it systematically ripens one week later.

Of all the 2012’s we tasted, this Gevrey seemed the youngest with still grippy tannins and a certain austerity. The fruit was dark and concentrated in the glass. Notes of black pepper and cassis.

As a blind wine, we poured another Gevrey Cazetiers, from the Bruno Clair once again but this time from 2002. A good vintage. Summer was not especially hot, though it was reasonably dry. Sugar levels were boosted in September but some grapes were adversely affected by scattered rains then. Sugar levels were quite respectable in the end and most wines showed their charm at an early stage.

The wine clearly showed more age but probably not ten more years than the 2012. The austerity of the 2012 was well polished here although a hint of volatile acidity could be felt. It didn’t distract too much from the experience as the richness of fruit was in full bloom.