Berthaut-Gerbet Bourgogne Les Prielles 2019 (750ML)

Les Prielles is one hectare of 40+ vines between the D974 and the Fixin village vineyards. Limestone below, marl above. Fermented in concrete and aged for ten months in old barrels. Typical north corner of the Côte de Nuits, firm and juicy.

Amélie Berthaut, the daughter of Denis Berthaut and Marie-Andrée Gerbet, has taken over both her father's, and most of her mother's, vineyards. Those entities were called Domaine Vincent and Denis Berthaut in Fixin and Domaine François Gerbet that was based in Vosne-Romanée. While the percentages are not exact, Amélie basically took over 100% of her father's and uncle's domaine and roughly two-thirds of her mother's and aunt's domaine. This explains why, among the total of 18 ha, there is the mix of vineyards from Fixin, Gevrey, Vougeot, Chambolle and Vosne-Romanée in the range. With respect to the 2019 vintage, Berthaut noted that "the growing season was once again hot and very dry, even drier than 2018, which was already quite dry. This of course engendered quite a bit of hydric stress for the vines but on the plus side of things, the dry conditions reduced disease pressure to almost nothing. I began picking the whites on the 13th of September and then followed with the reds on the 15th. While there was no sorting necessary due to disease-afflicted berries, there was a huge quantity of dried out and/or sunburned berries. This of course reduced yields considerable and overall, I would estimate that we were down some 40%. The vinifications were relatively straightforward and I used between none at all up to 60% whole clusters. As to the wines, what is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of them is that despite the heat and dryness, they are really quite fresh with excellent vibrancy and terrific terroir definition." - Burghound