The Story of Our Clos Marey-Monge 2022 Vintage
Join us as we journey through the creation of our Clos Marey-Monge 2022 Vintage. The year was filled with firsts for us at Château de Pommard. It marked the debut of Jean-Rémi Fray as our vineyard manager alongside his new team. It was also the inaugural year for Paul Negrerie and Sébastien Perdriau at the helm of our winemaking. We embraced innovation, experimenting with new techniques in our vineyards and cellars. The harvest blessed us with an abundance of high-quality grapes, and we’re introducing new characteristics to the wines.
Grape Growing
Our story begins in late 2021, as starlings danced above Clos Marey-Monge after the grape harvest and vine leaves fell. Each vintage commences with the pruning of the previous year’s growth. In 2022, we adopted a later pruning schedule to mitigate the risk of late spring frost damage. This decision proved wise as we encountered frost in mid-April yet suffered minimal harm. The spring and summer brought dry and sunny conditions, with scarcely any rain, challenging us to find the perfect timing for the harvest. By late August, we began carefully hand-picking grapes across Clos Marey-Monge’s 18 hectares, a meticulous process spanning 12 days.
Wine Making
Paul and Sébastien initiated their craft in the cellar even before the harvest, employing the “pied de cuve” technique to cultivate natural yeast from an early August pre-harvest. This year, we ventured into whole-cluster fermentation and experimented with amphora aging for portions of our cuvées. The presence of increased bacterial activity on the grapes prompted early malolactic fermentation, which we handled through a series of early devattings.
We’re immensely proud of the vintage’s quality and the insights gained from our experiments with whole clusters and amphora.
Tasting Notes
The 2022 vintage is distinguished by its richness, concentration, and ripe character. It was a warm, dry year, yielding wines with stable vegetal notes and vibrant color. Our Clos Marey-Monge 2022 Pinot Noirs burst with crunchy red fruits, showcasing a robust tannic structure and long, velvety finishes. The aging potential ranges from seven years for Émilie to 15-20 years for 75 Rangs, Nicolas-Joseph, Grands Esprits, Chantrerie and the Monopole.
Praise for the Vintage
Wine critics have lavished praise on the 2022 Burgundy vintage, with many hailing it as exceptional. Jasper Morris MW remarked on the overall excellence of Burgundy wines, specifically noting Pommard's impressive performance in recent years.
Harvest
August – September 2022
The harvest start date is one of the most critical factors in producing a great vintage. Pick the grapes too early and the vintage can be underripe and astringent. Pick the grapes too late, and the vintage can be lazy and without structure. We managed to find the perfect timing, at the end of August, and successfully harvested the 18 hectares of Clos Marey-Monge in just 12 days.
Vinification
September – October 2022
At the winery, Paul and Sébastien experimented with whole-cluster fermentation and amphora aging on portions of different Clos Marey-Monge cuvées. The new techniques are allowing us to bring new characteristics to the wine and manage the year-to-year climate changes we’re experiencing in the clos.
Aging
October 2022 – October 2023
For 12 months, each of the clos cuvées aged gracefully in 297 French oak barrels from three different suppliers. 51 of the barrels were new oak, imparting a subtle yet distinct character to the final wines. For the first time, we experimented with amphorae aging, adding another layer of complexity and depth to our wines.
Racking
October – November 2023
Racking involves the process of transferring the wines from their aging vessels to stainless steel blending tanks. Paul and Sébastien carefully transferred our 2022 wines over the course of a month while the vinification of the 2023 vintage was in full swing. It’s a very busy time in the winery but also an important time to treat the movement of each cuvée with great care.
Bottling
March – April 2024
Our bottling process for the 2022 vintage began in mid-March and spanned one and a half months. The total production has resulted in approximately 71,000 bottles of our eight Clos Marey-Monge cuvées.
Through this journey, from nurturing our vines to crafting our wines, we’ve embraced our core values of harmony, extraordinary care, conscientious effort, creative innovation, and a hopeful vision for the future. The Clos Marey-Monge 2022 Vintage is a testament to these extraordinary cuvées and a reflection of our enduring commitment to creating a more vibrant world for us all.
