Vougeot-1er Cru Les Petits Vougeots 2018

Producer note: Vincent Mongeard succinctly commented that the 2018 growing season was especially hot and dry though other than some spring mildew pressure, it was relatively easy to manage. We had a very fast flowering and as such there were uniform maturities plus the fruit was so clean that it made for rapid picking as there was little to sort. Quantities were good but even so potential alcohols were high as nothing came in under 14% and quite a number were over 15%. I vinified softly and at very cool temperatures, which is to say that no cuvée exceeded 25° C as I didn’t want to make bad examples of Chateauneuf de Pape! The other reason that alcohols were high is because every cuvée had zero grams of residual sugar, which is incredibly rare because there is almost always a gram or so of unfermentable sugars. My enologist was so impressed that they sent a team out to try to isolate the yeast strain responsible. Despite having lower levels of acidity, the average pH came in around 3.65 so the wines are ripe but they’re not soft. I frankly expected ripe and heavy wines but as the élevage has progressed, I would now describe them as an unexpected surprise.