DOMAINE de la PIROLETTE in BURGUNDY REPORT March 2019

Article by Bill Nanson, tasted in Saint-Amour with Grégory Barbet, 14 February 2019.

Grégory on 2018:
2018 a vintage that was practically perfect – though it was a lot of work at the start of the year as we have a heavy soil, but it turned out that wee needed that rain-water for the dryness that came. We started the harvest at the beginning of september. And got close the new maximum of 56 hl/ha – normally we are closer to 40! We didn’t want to start too early but also didn’t want too high degrees of alcohol – the phenolic maturity still took a little time – we had 14° but it wasn’t too high. Very clean grapes at harvest. I’m very happy with the quality even with the higher rendement – we had a very regular volume despite the weather – not 40 in one and 60 in another. It was the grape “sortie” that was big – so right from the start.

Grégory on 2017:

In 2017 the sortie of the grapes was normal so less grapes than 2018 right from the start. There was no problem with frost or hail in 2017 – there were a few impacts but pratically nothing. It was another sunny vintage, we even harvested earlier than in 2018 – at the end of august – a good volume but more in the direction of 40hl/ha – we were lucky that in 2017, like 2016 we avoided the hail.