2016 Chablis Montmains 1er Cru

L’Ancrage, in Saint-Malo’s very pretty old town, is nobody’s idea of a snooty dining destination, and that sits perfectly fine with the restaurant’s patrons, who flock to it in droves, happy in the knowledge that they will eat and drink well for a song.

The plateau of Préhy was at the epicenter of the savage late-May hailstorm in 2016 and subscribers may recall my photo of the blasted landscape around the winery taken two weeks later. Overall production at Domaine Brocard was down a whopping 60% from normal and the estate had to suspend its organic farming practices in order to save some fruit in badly affected vineyards. The harvest was shorter than usual, taking place between September 26 and October 6, with the fruit coming in at 11% potential alcohol and up and some parcels barely ripe. All of the wines were chaptalized, according to winemaker Odile Van der Moere, who noted that the estate made “correct” yields of about 50 hectoliters per hectare in vineyards that were unaffected by frost and hail. She considers the 2016 “very digestible” and predicts that they will be mid-term agers. “Neither 2016 nor 2015 is my favorite vintage but the ‘15s will be crowd-pleasers and they will offer early drinkability,” she added. “But neither of these years has the same acidity, minerality or structure as 2014 or 2012.”