n the heart of the Côte des Blancs, on the bottom of the Avize hillside, Grand Cru de Chardonnay, the House operates three plots located on the places called La Fosse, Némery and Champ Caïn, planted between 1962 and 1983 and oriented to the south-east. Campanian chalk, made up of calcite granules from the skeleton of marine microorganisms, is exposed there. Shallow soils are permeable and frostbite and their poverty can sometimes require the addition of amendment, which, with Jacquesson, is always organic. The climatic conditions of the year 2000 were marked by a very high average temperature, the highest since 1956. Winter is mild and dry, without snow. No morning frost likely to damage the vines was noted during a spring marked by hail storms. Flowering occurs under a hot June sun but in July, conditions deteriorate: cold, precipitation incessant (21 days of rain) and hail storms. August is warmer but still rainy and hail persists. Many vines are yellowing, downy mildew is spreading and botrytis is threatening. At the end of August, the weather improves and remains pleasant in September, allowing the region to bring in a rather large harvest but of good quality, picked under the sun. The cultivation methods practiced in the vines by our House favor the development of a moderate number of good bunches airy, our grapes ripen in excellent conditions and in Avize, the picking begins on September 19. The harvest is a remarkable quality, and the musts have an average strength of more than 10°, for an acidity of around 8 gr/l. Vinified in oak barrels of 40 to 75 hectoliters, a blend from our three plots is bottled, without any prior filtration, on May 30, 2001, becoming Avize Grand Cru 2000. 32,107 bottles were produced, 1,500 magnums and 60 jeroboams.