2016 Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru

“We like light, delicate Pinots,” said Jeremy Seysses. “We took it easy on punchdowns in 2016, as we’ve been doing recently in years with dry, warm summers. The wines have a risk of getting harder tannins in drought years." He went on: "The colors came quickly in 2016 and we didn’t want—or need—to push extraction. Once you overshoot your target, you can’t come back.” The Seysses family started harvesting their estate vines on September 26 and finished with their négociant vineyards (Dujac Fils & Père) on October 5, with Jeremy explaining that “some of the négociant vineyards carried higher yields so there was no danger of overripeness.”

Seysses, his wife Diana Snowden and brother Alex vinified the estate and Dujac Fils & Père wines with 80% to 90% whole clusters in 2016. Alcohol levels in the estate’s '16s are between 12.5% and 13% “with some chaptalization,” Seysses added. Today he finds similarities between the 2016s and the 1991s in their youth. Seysses told me that he doesn’t use more than 70% new oak these days, even for his grand crus—and he continues to work with lightly toasted barrels that don’t contribute a vanilla quality. Not long ago that percentage was 80% to 85% and his father Jacques Seysses used 100% for the grand crus.

Seysses told me that he finds a bit more phenolic maturity in the ‘16s than in the ‘15s, although the earlier vintage may have more total polyphenols. The pHs in both vintages are typically between 3.5 and 3.6, although the ‘15s had some help via acidification. Interestingly, when I mentioned 2005 as a possible comparison to 2015, Seysses told me he considers the 2005s on the Côte de Nuits a bit fresher in their fruit character than the ‘15s, despite their sometimes dryer tannins. But he also noted that he finds more pruniness in the ‘16s than in the ‘15s.

“There’s a nice sweetness to the ‘16s, and they have sweet dispositions,” he summarized. “They will age on their balance, while the ‘15s will age on their concentration [yields were typically between 25 and 30 hectoliters per hectare]. Two thousand fifteen is a very good to great vintage. Once I would have called it atypical, but now it’s the way things are headed.”