As humble as always, Xavier would never say so, but these wines are great in 2022, the savoury quality of the vintage contrasting perfectly with the intensity of the old vine fruit.
Picture: Antoine Martel for Stannary Wine
Pommard is one of the appellations that has truly blossomed in the warmer conditions caused by climate change. Whereas this once chewy and sometimes hard wine could only look on enviously at its Volnay neighbour and its beautifully aromatic and refined Pinots, it can now bask in the glow of its own ripe tannins and often voluptuous and charming fruit intensity. Pommard has reinvented itself and thanks to the likes of Xavier Horiot, is reaching new heights never previously approached.
Xavier began picking on the 26th of August and after four days of intensive harvest he was finished. Quantities were much more interesting than in 2021, when he lost around two thirds of his crop, but thanks to the large proportion of old vines in the domaine and his desire to keep yields at sensible levels, yields remained at 30 hectoliters per hectare for the top Crus and only 38 for the village wine. There is an energetic thread that runs through all the wines and lifts their polished and fruit-driven core quite beautifully. Xavier continues to do pigeage, but does it earlier in the vinification process than he used to, which means the tannins he extracts are finer and more svelte. New oak varies a bit as he has a limited number of barrels of certain wines, but it never oversteps the marks as the toast is light and the wines have enough substance and intensity to absorb it. Alcohol levels were great, coming in at between 12.8 and 13.2. As humble as always, Xavier would never say so, but these wines are great in 2022, the savoury quality of the vintage contrasting perfectly with the intensity of the old vine fruit. Well played Xavier!