Producer note: Eric Rousseau's take on the 2013 growing season was not all that dissimilar from his views on its 2012 counterpart in that "we had a lousy spring that was followed by a poor flowering that caused both a lot of shatter and a high incidence of shot berries. In fact our lousy spring lasted until the end of June! July and August were variable but we at least had a few periods of clement weather that clearly accelerated the ripening. September however turned lousy again and while we were ultra-vigilant about our vineyard treatments there was still plenty of rot. We chose to begin picking on the 1st of October and it rained during most of the harvest which for obvious reasons was less than agreeable, particularly since the fruit required a lot of sorting. Based on the growing season and the execrable weather during the harvest I expected we might have a 2004 or 2008 on our hands in terms of acidities. Surprisingly we brought in more phenolically mature fruit than I expected though the potential alcohols were no better than average at between 12.5 and 13%. We did our normal vinification using between 10 to 15% whole clusters because what was left after a very severe sorting regimen was quite ripe and of excellent quality. From the standpoint of yields we realized just a bit more than 2012 but quantities were still down from 25 to 30%. In terms of the wines they possess excellent freshness and transparency along with a great sense of energy. They're not quite as dense as the 2012s but they still possess more than enough concentration to allow then to age extremely well." The 2012s, revisited below, were bottled in March and April 2014. Speaking of bottling, Rousseau noted that he is now using bottles where the bottom is embossed with the name of the domaine. (Frederick Wildman, www.frederickwildman.com, NY, NY; Berry Brothers & Rudd, www.bbr.com, The Wine Society, www.thewinesociety.com, Tanners Wine, www.tanners-wines.co.uk, Laytons, www.laytons.co.uk, O.W. Loeb, www.owloeb.com, The Rare & Fine Wine Company Limited, www.therareandfinewinecompany.com, and Justerini & Brooks, www.justerini.com, all UK). Tasting note: An unusually high-toned nose is comprised by a pretty array of red berry fruit, earth and Asian style tea nuances. There is really lovely detail and vibrancy to the middle weight flavors that exude a fine bead of minerality on the restrained and lingering finish. This delivers surprisingly good flavor authority given that this is not nearly as concentrated as the best in the range. In sum this is a beautifully well-delineated wine of harmony if not power that should reward mid to longer-term aging as the supporting tannins are also dense but fine.

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