2016 & 2015 White Burgundy

BY STEPHEN TANZER | SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

It was quality over quantity in 2016, as a fraught growing season with sharply reduced production appears to have produced charming, aromatically appealing wines that will give early pleasure. The best 2015s are denser, deeper and more serious but rarely show the austerity of wines from more classic high-acid years.

While it’s much too early to know what level of quality the very early, very warm growing season of 2017 will achieve, growers and the négociants who rely on them are buoyed to have some wine at last after a series of short years. Somehow, the heart of Burgundy managed to dodge an extended cold spell in late April that resulted in serious frost losses from Bordeaux to Chablis to Switzerland to Tuscany. Finally, Burgundy caught a break, even if many vineyards on the Côte de Beaune are still recovering from the violent weather events of recent years. 

The high-rent neighborhood of Puligny-Montrachet during the 2017 flowering

It’s a good thing, too, as white Burgundy lovers in export markets have had to scramble to find their favorite wines. Prices have inevitably risen due to lack of inventory in producers’ cellars. While neither 2016 nor 2015 is a consistently outstanding year for these wines, both are very good and both produced many superb bottles. The ‘16s, in spite of a very challenging spring and a late flowering, are turning out to be delightful, expressive, midweight wines that should offer considerable early appeal. The 2015s have gone into bottle - especially those that were able to take advantage of a leisurely élevage - with more energy and grip than I would have predicted a year ago, and the best wines boast a rare combination of richness, structure and aromatic thrust.

The 2016 Growing Season: Misadventures in Grape-Growing 

Following a freakishly mild winter (reportedly the warmest December-through-February period in over a century), most of March was cooler than normal. A warmup at the end of the month and into April led to a budburst close to normal, but nearly two months of gloomy, wet weather followed. Although the Côte d’Or did not suffer serious spring hailstorms à la Chablis, parts of the Côte de Beaune (and Côte de Nuits) were hit hard by severe frost in the early morning of April 27. The previous evening had brought humidity and rain, but a degree or three of frost in conjunction with brilliant sunshine that morning resulted in widespread destruction. The sun acted like a magnifying glass on the ice-encrusted young buds, essentially exploding the buds in the most-affected areas. In most years, well-aerated hillside vineyards are less affected by frost, as the coldest air typically slides down the hills and settles in lower, flatter spots—normally in village appellations or Bourgogne. In 2016, though, some of the Côte de Beaune’s most hallowed hillside sites, including Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet, were the first to be hit by the rising sun.

In fact, the area in the northern section of Chassagne-Montrachet encompassing Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet and premier crus including Blanchot, Chenevottes and Vergers was an epicenter of frost damage. (On the other hand, the southern portion of Chassagne into Santenay was protected against the worst effects of the sun by morning mist.) There was also major damage in parts of Meursault (Poruzots and Bouchères, for example), the grand crus of Puligny-Montrachet and some of its premier crus (higher sites like Folatières, Truffière and La Garenne were much less affected), the Pernand side of the hill of Corton and some low spots in Savigny-lès-Beaune and Ladoix. Hail effects often ranged dramatically within fairly small areas, thus ensuring a complicated summer in the vines from the outset. I will report on frost damage and other vicissitudes of weather on the Côte de Nuits in 2016 in my coverage of red Burgundy at the end of the year.

Chassagne-Montrachet Blanchot Dessus and Le Montrachet