Chablis Gets the Côte de Beaune Treatment from Mother Nature&nbsp;

During the first half of this decade,
growers in Chablis enjoyed better luck with the weather than did their
colleagues on the Côte de
Beaune. But, for many, their lucky streak ran out in 2015, when a very promising
and precocious crop of grapes was pounded by a hailstorm just days before the
harvest was set to start. That weather event was just a taste of what was to
come in 2016, when the worst spring frost in decades, followed by two
widespread and extremely damaging hailstorms in May, reduced much of the region
to a non-smoking ruin. Only the Grand Cru slope and some right bank premier cru
vineyards at the center of the Chablis appellation escaped relatively
unscathed; elsewhere, there was pain aplenty for nearly everyone, with some
producers predicting that their 2016 production would be cut by 60% to 70%--or
more. And that was weeks before the flowering even began!<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469471985281-2016+hail+damage+to+the+horizon+copy.jpg"> 2016 hail damage to the horizon

Because the buds that will become next
year’s crop originate during this year’s flowering, production in 2017 is also
likely to be significantly affected. This is not good news for future Chablis
availability or pricing.

My annual tour of the Chablis vignoble in early June took place under
cool, overcast conditions, with the producers just beginning to come to grips
with the disastrous spring of 2016. Growers were facing a busy summer of work
in the vines, with the likelihood of relatively little payoff at the end. Where
the vineyards are normally a sea of green at the beginning of June, large
swaths of Chablis were stripped virtually bare of their vegetation. But it was the 2015s and 2014s that I
was in the region to taste.

A Favorable Start to the 2015 Season, then a Hot, Dry Summer&nbsp;

Following a warmer than average March,
an exceptionally warm April and a moderate May, the flowering took place early
and in a rush under warm, sunny conditions during the first half of June, with
a hot period on June 4, 5 and 6 (I was there, sweating) getting things off to
an explosive start. The stage was set for a copious crop of evenly ripe grapes.&nbsp;

June continued much warmer than average,
with a sharp and prolonged heat spike during the last few days of the month and
first week of July causing sunburn in some of the most exposed sites. There was
another, shorter heat spike in the middle of July and temperatures for the
month were again higher than normal. August remained very warm, with several
more short jolts of heat, particularly one at the end of the month. But it’s
important to note that, compared to the Côte d’Or, the high summer temperatures in Chablis were somewhat less
extreme compared to the long-term average, and the Chablis region had a bit
more beneficial rain in June, July and August than the Côte d’Or (and especially the Mâconnais and Beaujolais).

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469472072341-Riches+await+in+Vincent+Dauvissat%27s+cellar+copy.jpg">

Riches await in Vincent Dauvissat's cellar

But in Chablis, the end-of-August heat
wave was broken in spectacular fashion by the storm on the night of August
31/September 1. The hail began in Préhy and Courgis, moved up to the Valvan
valley, brushing much of the greater Vaillons hillside as well as Montmains,
and then did its most severe and highest-visibility damage to vineyards in the
Grand Crus Clos and Blanchots and the super-Premier Cru Montée de Tonnerre. The
storm marked the end of summer: virtually overnight, the thermometer plummeted
from the 90s to the low 70s, and temperatures remained pleasantly cool through
the harvest and beyond. The week of September 14 turned dull and showery but by
then the harvest was virtually over.

A Challenging and Often Rushed Harvest

The hailstorm hit literally a few days
before the harvest was slated to begin. Most growers waited a day or two for
the vines to dry out (the hail had been accompanied by heavy rain—as much as
four inches in some spots) but had no choice but to pick the hail-affected
vines quickly thereafter, before the grape skins began to rot. Most of the
producers affected by hail claimed that the thick-skinned grapes were
relatively little affected by off tastes, especially where the fruit was
quickly picked and sorted. But relatively little of this fruit had reached full
ripeness by the time emergency measures needed to be taken. And quickly
assembling a team of pickers so early in September was often a logistical
nightmare.

Some producers I visited in early June
said that they only had to advance the start of the harvest by two or three
days owing to the hail; but that assessment often understates the potential
effect on the hail-beset vineyards, which under ordinary circumstances would
not have been among the first to be picked. In fact, growers who began picking
as early as September 2 or 3 frequently admitted that they were forced to bring
in the hailed-on grapes as much as a week earlier than they would have liked. Of
course, they also pointed out that had the hail struck two weeks earlier, the
affected vines would not have produced any usable fruit.&nbsp;

The hail had other complicating effects
on the harvest of 2015. In this very warm growing season, had conditions remained
hot, dry and storm-free, some estates might well have harvested too late. In
fact, it’s quite possible that many wines made from fruit brought in early will
turn out to be fresher than the average 2015, perhaps with less depth and
dimension than they might otherwise have had—and, according to a number of
growers, somewhat lower alcohol—but with more minerality and energy and thus
more Chablis typicity. 

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469472106331-A+tasting+at+Patrick+Piuze+copy.jpg">

A tasting at Patrick Piuze

On the other hand, because growers often
struggled to mobilize their picking teams and were forced to devote all
available manpower to harvesting the vines that were affected by hail, in
numerous cases they may have picked their other vineyards later than they might otherwise have done, risking even higher
sugar levels in the grapes and, more likely, lower acidity. Happily, the night
of hail and rain marked an end to the summer heat and temperatures in September
returned to normal levels for the season, which helped to preserve acidity.

The Vinifications and the Style of the Wines

Needless to say, the very warm, sunny
summer weather burned off most of the malic acidity in the grapes; in some
sites, conditions were extreme enough to retard the ripening process. But
sporadic, well-timed rains in Chablis went a long way to preventing widespread
hydric stress. While some growers acidified and others blocked at least a
portion of their malolactic fermentations to preserve freshness in their wines,
most preferred to allow the vintage to express itself, maintaining that levels
of the more stable tartaric acidity were perfectly adequate for making fresh,
balanced wines. As on the Côte de
Beaune, pHs in 2015 were rarely excessively high, even where total acidity levels
were low, and with little malic acidity to be converted to lactic during the
secondary fermentations, the wines did not change dramatically. 

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469472179413-Nothing+but+oak+in+Vincent+Dauvissat%27s+cellar+copy.jpg">

Nothing but oak in Vincent Dauvissat's cellar

As a general rule, the alcoholic and
malolactic fermentations went quickly, in many cases finishing by the end of
2015. Quick sugar fermentations often resulted in very dry wines, sometimes
topheavy with alcohol. But a minority of growers told me that their sugar-laden
grapes took longer than usual to
finish fermenting. And less-efficient fermentations with wild yeasts may have
resulted in more complex wines with a bit less alcohol than they would
ordinarily have had, and that was all to the good in 2015.

The 2015s are very solaire­ in style, with considerably higher than average potential
alcohol levels requiring little if any chaptalization. The wines are clean,
pure and rich, favoring stone and citrus fruits over minerality, as is typical
of a warm, sunny year. If they rarely show the high-pitched crushed stone and
ineffable floral and herbal topnotes of the cooler 2014s, the vintage’s
successes do not lack for freshness. The potential downside to the vintage,
besides its mostly low acidity, is high alcohol, which can dull the wines’
perfume and overwhelm underlying soil character, at least in the early going.

While most growers compared their 2015s
to past warm years like 2009, 2005 and 2003, they emphasized that the newest
crop of wines is much more classic than the extreme year of 2003 and is much
less likely to display exotic or otherwise exaggerated aromas. Still, the 2015s
typically privilege varietal fruit character over minerality and many wines
display notes of menthol and anise, along with some alcoholic warmth. There’s a
slightly bitter quality to some wines that represents something of a wild card
for this vintage. Some growers attribute this characteristic to the
thick-skinned grapes and the strong dry extract and tannins in the wines, while
others believe it is a function of the way the wines’ underlying minerality
combines with their alcohol. But for the moment, it’s limiting the early appeal
and complexity of many 2015s.

It is clear that the majority of 2015s
will be best suited for relatively early drinking owing to their fully ripe
fruit, considerable body, pliancy of texture and soft acidity, and Chablis
traditionalists may well find that the vintage and varietal character displayed
by most ’15s overshadow the region’s distinctive terroirs. But the vintage’s better wines have the stuffing and
verve for mid-term aging, and these wines should show more distinction and
mineral cut as they burn off some of their baby fat and absorb some of their
alcohol. And of course wines made from some top vineyards picked early owing to
hail (especially Clos, Blanchots and Montée de Tonnerre) are often much less
marked by the hot vintage.

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469472247035-Toward+the+top+of+the+grand+cru+Valmur+copy.jpg">

Toward the top of the grand cru Valmur

The 2014s from Bottle

Two thousand fourteen is a splendid
Chablis vintage that should please connoisseurs and neophytes alike. The wines
were made from ripe, healthy fruit with bright natural acidity, and the better
examples of the vintage offer a lovely combination of aromatic freshness and
complexity, with elements of citrus and stone fruits, flowers and fresh herbs,
serious density of material, piquant saline minerality and firm, long finishes.
Although these wines are more pliant and less austere than the best vintages of
a generation ago, they are in the line of cooler recent years like 2012, 2010
and 2008. Most cru bottlings from 2014 call for at least a couple years to
harmonize in bottle and gain in complexity, with the most backward examples,
especially Grand Crus, in need of longer patience. The vintage’s better
examples should last very well: 5 to 8 years for village wines, 6 to 12 for
Premier Crus and 8 to 18 for Grand Crus as a rough rule.&nbsp;

Unlike in 2015, many warm sites
benefitted from the cooler, longer growing season of 2014, as their fruit
slowly reached full ripeness and gained in density and complexity without loss
of acidity or particularly high grape sugars. Early pickers often found that
their grapes were not totally ripe and still had high levels of acidity. There
was a rainy day (September 21) in the middle of the harvest, but most growers
believe that it was beneficial for softening the grape skins and finishing the
ripening process following weeks of very dry weather beginning in late August.
Unlike in 2013, when heavy rains in early October came just a few days after
the start of the harvest, the grapes in 2014 remained healthy and free of rot,
showing little of the surmaturité or
exotic character of the ‘13s. Estates made little use of their sorting tables
in 2014 and even less in 2015 in the vineyards that were not touched by the
hailstorm.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1469472331101-A+tasting+at+William+Fevre+copy.jpg">

A tasting at William Fevre
Yields were solid but hardly excessive in 2014, due in part to some evaporation
of water in the grapes during the hot, dry weeks leading up to the harvest. Production
levels were generally somewhat higher in 2005 as the flowering was particularly
successful, but the growers I visited rarely admitted to making the full
allowable yields. And of course production in vineyards in the path of the
hailstorm was often cut dramatically.

I tasted the overwhelming majority of
the wines covered in this article in Chablis in early June, then sampled
additional wines (early-bottled ‘15s as well as numerous ‘14s) in New York in
recent weeks.

You Might Also Enjoy<div>Multimedia:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/multimedia/recent-vintages-in-chablis-with-stephen-tanzer-jul-2016">Recent Vintages in Chablis</a>, July 2016</div><a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/the-awful-2016-spring-in-Chablis-jul-2016">The Awful 2016 Spring in Chablis</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer July 2016 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/the-2013-red-burgundies-fascinating-and-challenging-mar-2016">The 2013 Red Burgundies: Fascinating and Challenging</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer, March 2016 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/the-glorious-2002-red-burgundies-feb-2016">The Glorious 2002 Red Burgundies</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer February&nbsp;2016 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/the-consistently-delectable-2014-red-burgundies-jan-2016">The Consistently Delectable 2014 Red Burgundies</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer January&nbsp;2016 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/the-maconnais-on-the-move-dec-2015">The Mâconnais on the Move</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer December 2015 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/the-2014-and-2013-white-burgundies-sep-2015">The 2014 &amp; 2013 White Burgundies</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer September 2015 <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/chablis-2014-and-2013-aug-2015">Chablis: 2014 &amp; 2013</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer August 2015

--Stephen Tanzer

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