Chablis: 2014 & 2013

It’s too early to predict what the hot, dry summer of 2015 will yield in Chablis—or whether well-timed rains will arrive to revive the vines—but it appears that 2015 will continue the recent pattern of even-numbered vintages producing more classic, typical wines and odd-numbered ones yielding more extreme or idiosyncratic styles.

A detail of the Grand Crus of Chablis from 

A detail of the Grand Crus of Chablis from Sylvain Pitiot & Jean-Charles Servant's map of the region. Click here to view the full size image

A Healthy Growing Season and Harvest in 2014

Long-time Chablis lovers will be happy with the classic-in-a-modern-style 2014s, which offer a mostly successful and appealing balance of fruit, minerality and acidity. Crop levels were generous following two short harvests but most growers did not hit the allowed maximums.

Most growers had expected a precocious vintage due to an early and successful flowering under warm, dry conditions. But the summer weather was so-so and ripening was slow. Happily, the Chablis region escaped the damaging hailstorm that compromised so much fruit on the Côte de Beaune on June 28. Many growers pulled leaves in July and this helped protect against rot during sporadic rains in July and the first half of August. Anticyclone conditions set in in late August and carried pretty much through the end of the harvest. Some growers reported drought conditions during this period.

Owing to very dry weather in the weeks leading up to the harvest, the thick-skinned grapes lost a percentage of their water, which helped to concentrate their other elements: sugar, acidity, flavor. Michel Laroche at Le Domaine d’Henri, for example, noted that he expected 55 to 60 hectoliters per hectare not long before the harvest but only produced 46, as the grapes did not have their usual quantity of juice. He believes that the higher acidity of 2014 was directly attributable to the evaporation of water.

Subscriber Access Only

Log In or Sign Up

It’s too early to predict what the hot, dry summer of 2015 will yield in Chablis—or whether well-timed rains will arrive to revive the vines—but it appears that the recent pattern of even-numbered vintages producing more classic, typical wines and odd-numbered ones featuring trickier growing seasons will continue.