2015 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Cuvée Classique

Although François Labet expressed a preference for 2016 over 2015 for its freshness and avoidance of overripe qualities, his 2015 Clos Vougeot Hommage à Jean Morin was one of my favorite wine of its vintage, combining an almost chocolatey ripeness, great creamy depth, surprising inner-mouth energy and noble velvety tannins. For this special cuvée, Labet picks grapes from the first shoots on his oldest vines. He then harvests multiple blocks of his oldest vines to make his Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes bottling, with the estate's remaining grapes going into his cuvée classique. Incidentally, prior to 2015, Labet's Vieilles Vignes bottling (which then indicated “over 100 years” on the label) came from a single block of his oldest vines in the middle of his holding, which he has recently begun to replant.

Labet picked quickly in 2016, beginning on September 17; the wines will be bottled with 13% to 13.2% alcohol without any chaptalization. He made 52 barrels of wine, vs. a normal 100. Labet noted that the quality of the barrels was particularly important in 2016. Since 2005 he has purchased his staves from the forest of Reichshoffen in the Bas-Rhin department in northeastern France (which is actually situated north of the Haut-Rhin, where most of Alsace’s top vineyards are located) and has had his barrels made by cooper Stéphane Chassin. The grain of the oak from this forest, says Labet, is “as soft as toilet paper and gives a delicacy to the wines.”

As François Labet vinifies entirely with whole clusters, he did not harvest until September 11, as he had to wait for the stems to ripen. He then picked in just three days, bringing in fruit with a minimum of 13.7% potential alcohol. He noted that some of his colleagues harvested too early in 2015 because they had reserved their picking teams in advance for the first week of September, but, in the event, did not have full phenolic ripeness. “During the second week of September, the pulp got more juicy and the stems softened a bit,” he explained. "It surprises me every year that our sticky, high-sugar juice has such good acidity and minty freshness. It really keeps your mouth fresh."

Labet produced less than 25 hectoliters per hectare in ’15. As he’s finally starting to replant old vines “for the next generation” (he hadn’t really replanted since 1985!), he made his Vieilles Vignes cuvée from all of his plots in 2015. Previously that wine had come from a single block in the middle of his holding. None of the 2015s had yet been racked in November.