Thank you William! I didn’t realize there could be such big variances in the mix of malic vs tartaric acid from year to year. Looks like I’ll have to seek out more 2019 whites
The desire on the part of producers to more closely align cellar door pricing with the market is understandable and unsurprising if unfortunate… selling dollars for ten cents must get old. Hopefully after a strong run of vintages they remember that many customers buy every year - good and challenging - and don’t simply try to reset all prices to what the marginal buyer is willing to pay at an auction.
Thanks! Yes, in 2020 you’re looking at typically less than 2g/L malic acid, whereas >4g/L was commonplace in 2021 (I know of 2008s that hit 8g/L!). It really influences the style of the wines.
The other aspect I would have liked to touch on is how the different sites express in 2020, what the French would call the “lecture des terroirs”. If rainy vintage favor sites that drain well, and marginally ripe vintages favor the sunniest sites, then 2020 really shows the difference in the soils’ water holding capacity. Hillside sites with thin soils often got quite dehydrated, so you have a sort of sweet-and-sour dynamic between concentrated acidities and concentrated fruit (a couple of wines made me think of Barbera!); sites with better hydrated soils produced fuller, more complete, 3D wines. But of course all that is patterned and complexified by farming!
Probably the Domaines that didn’t already do +50% in 2019. I’d imagine they saw their bretheren succeed and followed suit. Not to mention costs are up huge everywhere.
Wow. Hadn’t seen 50% yet so that will be a bit of a shock. I’ve seen a whole lot of 25-30% price increases in grand crus and 1er crus, with lots of 3 bottle cases rather than 6. That being said, I’m pretty sure that there is someone standing behind me waiting to take anything I don’t want at any price, and based on what I’ve tasted of 2020 there is no way I’m willing to miss it.