Joblot Givry Clos du Cellier Aux Moines 1er Cru(2003)

are many more important aspects. Ironically, given his point of view, Joblot is largely a minimalist producer across his 13 ha of vines, excepting of course the generous amounts of new oak. In fact, I was a bit surprised to hear him say that I want to intervene as little as possible because as soon as you intervene, you lose something. Joblot and I amicably jousted for quite some time about our respective views on terroir and he finally conceded that terroir exists and that the great sites in the Côte d'Or clearly have a unique character. But he went to ask how many of your readers could explain what the terroir of Givry is? For that matter, how many people anywhere could? What I'm trying to do is the bring attention to the terroirs that we have and to do that, I couldn't be handcuffed by the views of a bunch of locals here who had been underachieving for years. The wines of Givry were once famous but now, who knows them beyond a few top quality domaines? No, I firmly believe had I just gone along with everyone else, I would have starved just like they do, which I refused to do. In point of fact, I am not oblivious to terroir but it doesn't dictate to me how I work my vines or make my wine. While I don't necessarily agree with everything Joblot expresses here, it's clear that his views carry the weight of a deep and considered pragmatism, of which I respect if for no other reason than the man is obviously a very serious student of the grape. For readers who may not know the Joblot approach, he explains that he wants to harvest on the balance of acidity, never on sugar. I generally pick early because I want that acid balance as it permits the wines to age well. Moreover, the triage work that I do is strictly in the vineyard because if you bring rotten grapes back to the cuvérie, it's already too late as the clean grapes have been affected. I destem 100%, lower the must temperature to 14° C (57° F) and let the fermentations go as they will afterwards. There is generally a 12 day cuvaison and my approach is to try and work with the skin tannins as much as possible because they're the finest. The élevage period is usually from 12 to 15 months in duration with around 75% new wood and the goal during the élevage is to minimize exposure to oxygen. I don't mind bottling with higher levels of dissolved CO2, which is to say between 650 and 700 milligrams (note: 450 to 500 would be considered typical). We almost never fine though we will filter if necessary. With respect to the 2003 vintage, Joblot reports that he began the harvest on the 15th of August. I was concerned because we had only 70 days from the date of the flowering to the harvest rather than the 90 that we typically have. There wasn't much triage work and we realized yields of 18 to 22 hl/ha in red and 30 hl/ha in white. Most wines are between 13.2 and 13.8% alcohol and are very densely concentrated. I did not acidify and even though the malos were precocious, my volatile acid levels were still only .4 to .5%, which is acceptable though I wouldn't want any more than that. I believe 2003 will make some very interesting wines in red, in fact more interesting than many people presently believe. (Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, D.C.). Reds: Aromatically riper but still more elegant and this is a remarkably fine effort in the context of what is a robust vintage. The aromas run toward cassis and fruit liqueur with very ripe yet very fresh middle weight, punchy and powerful flavors culminating in a delicious, long and pretty finish. The wood is better integrated here and this is packed with potential.    (hide)