Capitain-Gagnerot Ladoix 1er Cru 'La Micaude' 2023
The Capitain Ladoix 1er Cru 'La Micaude' is a 'monople', meaning they own the entire 4 acres of vines themselves. This is and has been for nearly 30 years, our benchmark Pinot Noir. Roger Capitain used this wine to show us that if you are looking for color in Pinot Noir, you are asking the wrong question. He showed us here that a wine can be delicate and powerful at the same time, And he showed us that pretty little red fruits can age as well (and usually better) than concentrated extracted fruit bombs. Racy and well-structured, 'La Micaude' is at the same time discreet with delicate black berry fruits. It's one of those wine that will surprise you as it ages, growing in elegance and nuance with each passing year.
BURGUNDY 2023 VINTAGE
The 2023 vintage in Burgundy was marked by abundant yields and a growing season that brought both challenges and rewards, resulting in a harvest that is notable for its charm, increasingly promising for its quality, but troubling for its irregularity.
The BIVB says it was the largest harvest in Burgundy’s history, producing approximately nearly 2 million hectoliters. This enormous crop was by and large healthy, with no signs of stress despite a record-breaking heatwave during the hottest harvest ever.
But let’s step back and look, as we do each year, at the lead-up to the that harvest.
The winter of 2022-23 was very mild and dry; the spring was mild, but wetter; summer was punctuated by storms and then came a heatwave late in the season that took the crop racing towards harvest.
So despite being perhaps less sunny that recent vintages, the heat and regular rains pushed the vines to grow rapidly and the grapes to develop, albeit without serious phytosanitary (oidium and mildew) issues, if the growers were vigilant.
That said, there were those who saw the huge crop coming, and removed lots of buds early in the growing season. This not only helped manage the yield, but it also reduced disease pressure. Some say this may have been the key to quality in 2023.
A hailstorm in mid-July hit Meursault and Volnay hard (with up to 40% loss of the crop).
The harvest saw temperatures soar, with a heatwave pushing daytime highs to around 40 C (104 F). Ripening happened at a frightening speed (one producer friend said that there were no Saturdays or Sundays during harvest). This forced some growers to pick early to preserve as much acidity as possible. The result was a vintage with abundant yields and generally healthy grapes, though quality varied depending on terroir and vineyard management.
It’s important to note that neither Pinot Noir nor Chardonnay like high temperatures and heat-wave harvests. So 2023 is yet another Burgundy vintage where you have to know who made the wine. Well-made whites at the moment are drinking brilliantly, with Chablis getting a lot of attention. The reds have developed slowly, but now, after some time in the bottle, they are loosening up. The fruit on both red and white is splashy. And the acidity levels seem good, considering the hot growing season. It may be a case of good malic acid replacing the lactic. But the results are showing charm. What vintages to compare these to? The whole is not far off of the precedent vintage, 2022 with maybe a little less class. Is particular, the reds remind me of 2017 (which is a personal favorite at the moment), and the whites are a bit like the 2018s, in their ripeness and acidity. Watch out for wines that have a green, vegetal edge; some producers got spooked by the heat and harvested too soon. But you won’t have to worry about that here at burgundywine.com. Enjoy the 2023s for what they are: ripe, juicy and voluptuous.
LADOIX
COTE DE BEAUNE
Coming south from Dijon, Ladoix is the first village of the Cote de Beaune. En route you will have left the Cote de Nuits at Nuits St. Georges and traversed a zone of commercial quarries. Ladoix shares with Aloxe-Corton and Pernand-Vergelesses the famous wines of the Corton mountain. But it also has a northern zone of vestigial Cotes de Nuits soil. The vineyards grow both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, seemingly randomly, but really they are planted mostly according to the complexity of the soils as the hillside heads up into the vines of Aloxe-Corton.
Produced in the commune of Ladoix-Serrigny, the appellation Ladoix includes 11 premiers crus.
Wine
Ladoix red is often the color of cassis (or blackcurrant), bright garnet with deeper tints. But if you are looking for deep color, you have come to the wrong place. Ladoix is a finesse wine, long on little red woodland fruit and the first hints of Cote de Nuits cherry. It is deceptively tender and supple, but should have a depth that comes from its location rather than extraction. It can be voluminous without being dense.
Ladoix white is golden straw colored and should smell of flowers and have notes of ripe autumn fruit, plum and apple, pear and fig. They are bright on the palate, often very juicy, but show the firmness of good structure. Their minerality in not unlike the famous neighbor further up the slope, Corton-Charlemagne
Terroirs
The soils of the upper slopes are pebbly and red, iron-rich olite with a high limestone content and a good bit of marl. These soils suit white wines. Mid-slope, reddish-brown calcareous soils with abundant limestone debris produce full-bodied and flamboyant red wines. Clayey soils at the foot of the slopes take away some of their finesse, but add oomph. Exposures are mainly east or south-east to south. with altitudes at 230 to 325 meters
Color
Reds - Pinot Noir
Whites - Chardonnay
Production surface area :
1 hectare (ha) = 2.4 acres
Reds : 73.86 ha (including 15.96 ha premier cru)
Whites : 20.14 ha (including 8.73 ha premier cru)
Food
'Silky' is a word often used to describe red Ladoix. Soft tannins and roundness texture go well with cured ham and delicate meats like rabbit or boiled beef. There is a fleshiness that will smooth out the spices in a curry of lamb or poultry. It goes well with mild cheeses such as Vacherin, Reblochon or Cîteaux.
Ladoix white at its fullest, suits the salty iodine flavors of shellfish and cooked seafood. Blue cheeses work, as do firmer aged goat cheeses and grainy gruyère.
Appellations
On the label, the appellations 'Ladoix' and 'Ladoix 1er Cru' may be followed by the name of a specific vineyard, known as a climat.
The following climats are classified as premier cru.
Basses Mourottes
Bois Roussot
En Naget
Hautes Mourottes