2015 Chablis Saint Pierre

Two thousand sixteen was clearly a difficult vintage for this estate, as the fruit was underripe and low in acidity, according to export manager Margaux Laroche. Her family domain was one of the first to harvest in 2016, beginning on September 16 as the rot was beginning to spread. “We lost 50% of our production to rain and mildew but we didn’t have frost or hail in our premier crus,” she told me. “We eliminated about 25% of our grapes from Troesmes and had one good day to harvest in Homme Mort before the fruit started to turn,” said Laroche. “Ultimately we lost 75% of our crop and averaged just 12 or 13 hectoliters per hectare overall.” She went on: “The color of the wines is dark, like the 2006s. We used less oak for the ‘16s due to the small quantities of wine, since we fill the tanks first and then use barrels for the spillover.” As the estate did not have tanks small enough to separate their various plots in Fourchaume and L'Homme Mort, all of this juice was blended to make a single cuvée.

In comparison to 2016 and the frost-plagued spring of 2017, the 2015 growing season seems like a miracle, said Laroche. “It was easy from A to Z, starting with an early flowering at the beginning of June. We still had moisture in the soil six inches below the surface so our vines didn’t suffer a blockage of maturity during the hot summer. We didn’t have hail but we still moved up our harvest from September 7 to September 3." None of the ‘15s I tasted were chaptalized. Laroche noted that the 2015s show similar acidity and pHs to the 2012s but are higher in alcohol. "Due to the warm vintage, you don't find the normal minerality of Chablis in 2015," she concluded.

As this estate’s vineyards were out of the hail zone in 2015, the harvest did not begin until September 7. According to export manager Margaux Laroche, the estate then stopped for several days and then finished up on the 17th. Nothing was chaptalized in 2015 and the wines will be bottled with alcohol around 13.5%, according to winemaker Thibaud Baudin, who noted that the alcoholic fermentations were very slow in 2015 due to the high sugar levels in the grapes. The malos, on the other hand, were very early but all of the wines were still on their lees at the time of my visit in early June. The estate plans to bottle its top wines in December.

According to Margaux Laroche, “2014 is a beautiful vintage for Chablis lovers and is Michel’s favorite due to its high level of acidity and real concentration of flavor. “ Alcohol levels range between 12.2% and 13.1%, without chaptalization. The pressing was very gentle in 2014 in order to avoid getting any grassy or vegetal notes, but stronger in 2015.

Incidentally, Laroche has her work cut out for her as export manager, as production here is rising sharply as Michel Laroche’s vineyards revert back to him following his sale of Domaine Laroche to the Languedoc-based négociant Jean in late 2009. Production in vintage 2013 was just 30,000 bottles but will rise to 120,000 in 2015, and by 2019 this estate will have control of 22 hectares of vines.