Prefer the old site?Launch →

Domaine Lécheneaut

Two thousand fifteen was the 31st vintage for brothers Vincent and Philippe Lécheneaut, and, according to Vincent, “without a doubt, the best ever for us. We had great raw material and there was nothing to eliminate. We had never seen this before.” Still, the growing season was complicated by a lack of rainfall, said Vincent. “We saw the beginning of veraison after July 14, then nothing,” he told me. “The vines were too thirsty and the physiological maturity was disrupted. But the early August rain restarted photosynthesis and the fruit ripened quickly. We started harvesting on September 7 because we feared a drop in acidity if we waited any longer.” The fruit came in with potential alcohol between 12.5% and 13%, and Vincent did “a touch of acidification.” He also vinified the 2015s with a higher percentage of whole clusters than usual—“a good 50%”—to retain freshness.

Lécheneaut emphasized that he has been working less extractively in recent years. He begins with a cold soak lasting six or seven days and did a maximum of just three punchdowns per cuvée in 2015. “We feared a lack of energy in the wines but that wasn’t the case,” he told me. The malos were long, eventually finishing in July, and the wines had not yet been racked at the time of my visit in November. Vincent showed me representative samples of each cuvée from multiple barrels. He now uses roughly one-third new oak for his top wines.

From The 2015 Red Burgundies: You Are So Going To Want Them (Jan 2017) by Stephen Tanzer

Reviews

Wines

Sort by default

2015 Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits

Color: Red

Subscriber Access Only

or Sign Up

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer vitae aliquam odio. Aliquam purus diam, tempor et consectetur vitae, eleifend ac quam. Proin nec mauris ac odio iaculis semper. Integer posuere pharetra aliquet. Nullam tincidunt sagittis est in maximus. Donec sem orci, vulputate ac quam non, consectetur fermentum diam. In dignissim magna id orci dignissim convallis. Integer sit amet placerat dui. Aliquam pharetra ornare nulla at vulputate. Sed dictum, mi eget fringilla lacinia, nisl tortor condimentum mi, vitae ultrices quam diam ac neque. Donec hendrerit vulputate felis, fringilla varius massa.

- By Author Name on Month Date, Year