Reminder: 2021 red burgundies are wines one can ‘see through’ – terroir specific. These prices are $30-$70 below even grey market. I love Arnaud’s wines and have been selling them from the get-go. La Perrière has become one of my favorite climats in Gevrey. If I discover the reason I will let you know. For now all I can say is, “complet”.
Burghound: The highly talented Arnaud Mortet, who now manages 16 ha of vines, noted that the 2021 "growing season was a bear to manage as we had something of everything as there was frost, plenty of disease pressure and even hail on the north side of Gevrey just before the flowering! We fought the frost with warming pots and this helped a great deal, especially in Echézeaux where temperatures fell to as low as -9.5° C. It was also so wet that we often couldn't get equipment in the vineyards, so we did treatments with atomizers, which is tough slogging. We picked from the 22nd of September and while the fruit was reasonably ripe and clean, yields were definitely abysmal at between 10 to 20 hl/ha. Potential alcohols were mostly in the 12 to 12.2% range, so I chaptalized up to 1%. I used up to 80% whole clusters but with the central stem manually cut out, which takes a lot of people and time. I again reduced the amount of new wood and it's now no more than 33% except for the Chambertin where it's roughly 66%. As to the wines, I love this vintage for its freshness, energy and purity of expression." As the ratings and reviews confirm, Mortet fashioned some wonderful wines in 2021, indeed when taken as a portfolio, he may well have made the wines of the vintage, that's just how good they are. Don't miss them!
[2021 La Perriere] Here too a ripe and fresh nose reflects notes of pungent earth and the sauvage on the blend of red cherry, plum and a discreet application of wood. The rich, caressing and refined yet quite powerful larger-scaled flavors possess solid mid-palate concentration before culminating in a youthfully austere, complex and sneaky long finale. This is excellent and a wine that should reward a decade of keeping, perhaps even a bit more. Outstanding.
