2016 vs. 2015 Northern Rhône: Heads You Win, Tails You Win 

BY JOSH RAYNOLDS | APRIL 12, 2018

At first glance, 2016 and 2015 in the Northern Rhône Valley would appear to have yielded wines with utterly disparate personalities. On paper and by reputation the 2016s and 2015s couldn’t be more different. So the received wisdom goes. In reality, though, the closer one looks at these two outstanding vintages, the more similarities start to reveal themselves. My recent extensive tastings of bottled wines from both years, sampled side-by-side at many estates, have only confirmed my impressions of these two superb vintages. 

2016: Elegance, Freshness and Detail – 2015: Ripeness, Weight and Power . . . Right?

Well, yes and no. While the ‘16s, as a group, are lighter-bodied and more elegant than the ‘15s, they are far from delicate flowers. For a less-ripe – but by no means thin – vintage, 2016 produced an abundance of wines that exhibit admirable depth plus energy. Two thousand fifteen, a warm-to-hot year, yielded wines that possess real backbone and, often, very healthy acidity levels that will keep them fresh for years to come. Indeed, a number of producers I’ve been visiting since 1989 – and whose opinions I trust – believe that the ‘15s will be among the longest-lived wines they have ever made. The biggest difference between the two vintages, I believe, is that the tannic structure of the ‘15s makes many of the best wines forbidding to taste, much less drink, right now, and probably for the next decade or more.

A late winter 2018 snowfall in the southern sector of Cornas

2016: Impatient Northern Rhône Wine Lovers, Rejoice

Most of the ‘16s show wonderful up-front vivacity and clean, lucid fruit. This might lead one to believe that it’s an early-maturing vintage that should be enjoyed for its come-hither character rather than buried in the cellar. I have a feeling, though, that these wines, many of which are still in barrel, will continue to put on weight and gain in structure over the coming months, and that they will age positively for quite some time – but more on balance than on underlying backbone or mass. Yields in 2016 were healthy but not excessive, so there’s no lack of concentration to the wines, especially those from the best producers.

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