The Fine Wine Review

For the most part, this release consists of 2015 wines from the Sonoma County operation. The vintage there is quite ripe, to some extent beyond my preference. And then there is the 2014 Monte Bello from the home vineyard, always one of the world’s most notable wines. (Continue reading here.)

See here for introductory material about the 2016 vintage at Pousse d’Or. (Continue reading here.)

See here for the introduction to Grivot’s 2016 vintage.

(Continue reading here.)

Harvesting began on 25 September with the Clos-Vougeot and the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits red and continued to the beginning of October. The white Hautes Côtes de Nuits was harvested later than the other wines.

As usual, the grapes were entirely destemmed. Malolactic fermentations were relatively quick, finishing between February and mid-May. As with the vast majority of estates that I visited, there was at least one appellation that was not made in 2016; in this case, it was the Chambolle-Musigny “Combe d’Orveaux”.

All wines were tasted from tanks, where they were stabilizing in preparation for December bottling. (Continue reading here.)

Géraldine Godot, the technical director of this biodynamic estate, said that losses in 2016 represented 70% of a normal crop. For the estate as a whole, the yield was 11 hl/ha.

Harvesting in 2016 began on 27 September and lasted six days. Malolactic fermentations were quite quick, finishing by the end of December. The percentages of whole clusters were quite high — not just because that is common practice here, but also because the stems were necessary to fill up the fermenting tanks. As a consequence, except for Clos de l’Arlot and Clos des Forêts Saint-Georges, the reds are entirely whole cluster. All the reds have 50% or less new oak.

There was some acidification for the Hautes Côtes de Nuits in red and white and also for the Côte de Nuits-Villages, Nuits-Clos de l'Arlot, and Vosne-Suchots.

The white wines were already in tank, the reds still in barrel. The whites and the red Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Nuits will be bottled in December, the other wines in April of next year.

Here, we start with the white wines: (Continue reading here.)

These are the negociant wines that Jean-Marie Fourrier has been making for the last several years. The wines are from purchased fruit, and Fourrier sometimes does the harvesting (as opposed to receiving fruit already harvested by the owner). 

With the exception of the Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Aux Échanges, all the grapes were destemmed. (Continue reading here.)

This estate was my first introduction to the sad fact that losses from the frost and the subsequent mildew were more severe than had previously been stated. In particular, I learned here that counter to what many have said, vineyards in both Vosne-Romanée and Gevrey-Chambertin were affected. Overall, the estate lost 60% of what would be a normal harvest. Two appellations, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Les Poisets and Clos-de-Vougeot, were not made in 2016 because damage losses there were so severe. Vosne-Romanée, Aux Reignots was the estate’s only appellation that did not suffer losses.

Harvesting began on 22 September with the Reignots. There was then a pause, and the harvesting of the remaining vineyards began on 26 September. There was no triage here, and only a minor amount of chaptalization in order to extend the fermentations. Malolactic fermentations began in late November and early December and finished in January, except for the Vosne-Chaumes, which took a bit longer.

These are dazzling wines with great finesse, precision, and fidelity to terroirs. Charles Lachaux continues to do wonderful things since he took over this already much-esteemed domaine.

The first four wines were racked three weeks prior to my tasting them and had been transferred to tanks to await bottling. (Continue reading here.)