2015 Puligny-Montrachet Village

The harvest started early here in 2016, on September 17, according to winemaker Brian Sieve, because the sites that were not frosted ripened their fruit quickly. Etienne de Montille did not start picking his family’s Domaine de Montille vineyards until the 21st, by which time 60% of the Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet was in. The malolactic fermentations all finished by January, but some of the sugars took until early spring to ferment; those latter cuvées were sulfured in March.

Sieve believes that the young 2016s have a lot of potential. But as the wines were still in barrels at the time of my visit, he noted that it’s too early to predict how quickly they will absorb their sulfur additions when they go into tanks in August. He compared the ‘16s to the estate’s ‘14s, noting that the ‘15s are denser and riper. “But the density of fruit in 2015 can mask terroir,” he told me, adding that the estate was careful to pick earlier in '15 than they had in 2009. Also, the younger vines made a strong contribution to the wines in 2015, which Sieve believes resulted in less complexity and terroir character, at least in the early going. The growing season of 2016, he went on, featured less heat pressure, and the higher concentration of old vines produced more classic wines with more minerality.

This estate had very low yields in 2015 owing to the lingering effects of three years of hail, said Brian Sieve, who makes the Domaine de Montille and Deux Montille wines with Etienne de Montille (the Château de Puligny-Montrachet wines are crafted by de Montille and Jacques Montagnon). Sieve added that the team waited longer to harvest the vineyard blocks that were carrying more fruit. The malolactic fermentations went quickly but the sugar fermentations lingered well into spring, he told me, explaining that the wines here are made without sulfur additions and thus it's rare that one dominant yeast strain takes charge of the fermentation. "The big wines were picked at 12.5% potential alcohol in 2015, then bumped up to 12.9%, but we only had to chaptalize one-third of our cuvées."

Acid levels in the post-malo wines are mostly 4.0 or higher, said Sieve, who was not the only winemaker to tell me that the ‘15s “are getting fresher than people originally anticipated.” Nearly all of these wines are now aged in 500- or 600-liter barrels, about 20% new for the premier crus and 10% for the village cuvées. The Château de Puligny white wines have been bottled entirely with DIAM corks since vintage 2009.