The 2012 Savigny-les-Beaune Village (white) comes from two sources and is a blend of 60% Pinot Blanc and 40% Chardonnay. It has a simple but clean bouquet that opens nicely with waxy, resinous aromas. The palate is rounded on the entry, quite full of glycerine with a sweet, slightly honeyed, ginger-infused finish that lingers longer in the mouth than the nose suggests. This is a satisfying Savigny. One statement nonchalantly uttered by head winemaker Frederic Barnier not only summed up the 2012 vintage, but the plight of Burgundy in recent years. “We have lost around one and a half crops out of the last four.” Imagine losing your equivalent income? For a significant negociant such as Louis Jadot, one that under outgoing(ish) winemaker Jacques Lardiere and his successor, have constantly striven for quality, that dearth of fruit has a major impact. The dramatic decrease in crop means that more people are “fighting” for top quality contracted fruit. The rise in land prices has exacerbated the problem as few can afford to buy vineyards and therefore resort to building small negociant businesses and join the queue. Now, small operations that just require one flagship barrel of grand cru might just be able to afford to pay over the odds. However, a merchant such as Jadot simply cannot afford to do that when they need dozens of barrels to satisfy worldwide demand. So how do they do it? “Relationships,” answers Frederic, “It all comes down to relationships with our contracted growers.” For evidence of that, just flick down to my review of their Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet that came a whisker away from never being made. So with all the sturm und drang, how are Louis Jadot faring? Suffice to say that Frederic seems to have slipped into Jacques Lardiere’s impossible-to-fill shoes by simply slipping into his own. There was a confidence about him when I conducted two morning sessions with him, though he never crosses the line into braggadocio. The first tasting focused on a complete horizontal of the white. “The (white) 2012s were very rich,” he remarked. “Some of the village crus were overwhelmed and they were too fat and heavy. So in order to maintain freshness we blocked the malo-lactic through sulfur addition.” Frederic goes into more detail of the vintage in the accompanying video, but the main point is that the skins were thick and the berries yielded very little juice. This meant that he had to exact a very prudent vinification in order to eke out the free-run juice without leeching hard, bitter, perhaps astringent elements. He appears to have done exactly that. While I would not say that it was an unmitigated success, after all when you annually produce 100 crus there are bound to be some that don’t quite make the grade, Louis Jadot’s 2012s continue a fine run of form that disprove the theory that large-scale merchants cannot produce wine equal if not better than bijou growers. And that comes from a lot of sweat and tears. Frederic rued that he had not seen his wife or children over the previous four weeks during the harvest! But these prenatal wines appear to have made that temporary estrangement worthwhile. These samples were all taken from barrel and prepared by Frederic Barnier on the same morning of my arrival, with as much effort to reflect the final blend as possible. Note that for the village crus, samples did not include deselected premier crus barrels that will obviously ameliorate those wines. Importer: Kobrand Corp., Purchase, NY; tel. (914) 253-7756 and through Hatch Mansfield in UK.

The Jadot white 2006 Savigny-les-Blanc represents a blend of Chardonnay and old vines Pinot Blanc. With a penetrating aroma of fresh lime, sage, tarragon, and pistachio, this offers a clear, refreshing, yet richly-textured, palpably high extract palate impression, and a long, subtly pungent, chalky finish. A terrific value, it should drink beautifully for at least 3-4 years. The impressive collection of Jadot 2006s were slow both in their alcoholic fermentation and their malo-lactic evolution, which director Jacques Lardiere considered all to the good when it came to imposing structure and building complexity in wines of such ripeness and relatively high alcohol. In any case, Jadot whites seldom complete their malo-lactic transformation, and if one seeks a vintage to demonstrate the virtues of that approach, surely 2006 is the poster child. Furthermore, anyone who thinks that there are no values left in white Burgundy today has clearly not given Jadot’s wide range the attention it deserves. (These wines were assembled from barrel for my tasting and/or tasted from a range of individual barrels. I have generally made note of those wines not owned by Jadot and its associates by at least indicating whether grapes or juice were purchased.) Importer: Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY; tel.(212) 490 9300

Jadot’s 2002 Savigny-Les-Beaune is a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. Its white flower-scented nose leads to an expansive, white pepper-laced, medium-bodied character. Silky-textured, expressive, and supple, this is a wine to drink over the next 5-6 years (though I have recently tasted a 30-year-old white Savigny-Les-Beaune from Jadot that was anything but dead). Importer: Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY; tel. (212) 490-9300

Made from 60% Pinot Blanc and 40% Chardonnay, the Savigny exhibits an extremely tight nose with notes of smoke and toasted bread. Well-delineated and floral, it possesses a strong acid component that a German wine fanatic would appreciate. Drink this light-to-medium-bodied wine over the next 2-3 years. This note is the result of tastings I did in Burgundy between January 7 and January 29. Ratings with a range of scores in parentheses indicate the wine was tasted from cask, not bottle. Pierre-Henri Gagey, the director of the highly respected Louis Jadot negociant house and his extremely talented winemaker Jacques Lardiere, are excited about their '95s. Like everybody else in the Cote, they saw the flowering on their whites get seriously damaged by the May snow fall. This resulted in a 30% reduction of their overall production, with some vineyards having yields more than 50% below the norm (Montrachet for example). The resulting grapes were very small and packed with concentrated juice, thereby providing fabulous raw material for Lardiere to display his considerable talent. Importer: Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY; (212) 490-9300.

The Gageys make no bones about rating 1989, 1985, and 1986 as significantly richer, more complex vintages for white burgundy than 1992. Their 1992s are successful, but based on my impressions of the 1992s vis a vis the 1989s, 1986s, and 1985s, I would agree with their assessment. The white winemaking philosophy in low acid years such as 1992 is to only do a partial malolactic fermentation in order to preserve the natural acidity. This has proven to be a highly successful policy, resulting in some of the longest-lived white burgundies of the region. Jadot's 1992 Savigny Les Beaune (made from 60% Pinot Blanc and 40% Chardonnay) is acidic, lean, and austere. Importer: Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY.