2015 Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Combottes 1er Cru

The Arlauds normally harvest their 15 hectares of vines in 9 days but in 2016 it took 15 (beginning on September 24) to get proper ripeness owing to differences in grape maturity from the effects of the spring frost. Estate-wide production was down by 50% from normal. There were two surprises, said Cyprien Arlaud in October. First, at the end of the maturity, the sugars were going up very quickly “and could go crazy in just three days.” Also, he told me, the yeasts gave more alcohol than usual, which he attributed to the high amount of microbiological activity during the damp spring. “But the vintage could also give us surprising acidity,” he noted, “up to 4.8 grams per liter,” and the wines have healthy pHs and good balance. None of the fruit surpassed 13.5% potential alcohol, and Arlaud did not acidify or chaptalize in 2016. He noted that his viticulture now preserves acidity and results in more regular ripeness (the estate received its biodynamic certification in 2014). “Ten years ago, it was much easier to lose track of grape sugars and allow acidity levels to drop.” Arlaud has also reduced his frequency of punchdowns since 2004, but he maintains that the most important difference today is simply the balance of the fruit.

A big challenge in 2016 was the differences in flowering dates even within the same cluster, and the mix of large and small grapes. The need to use more copper sprays in the humid spring could result in thicker skins even when there was a good amount of juice, said Arlaud, who added that the warm summer weather reduced the range of maturity and brought concentration. “It’s a good Burgundian vintage, classic in the sense of freshness and site expression, and with more red fruit than black character,” he concluded. He feared getting surmaturité but feels that he “escaped that problem.” What does 2016 lack, I asked him. “A bit of tannin maturity. The wines are not quite as fine or elegant as some of the best vintages, but they have good fruit maturity and balance.”

Arlaud, who is using less new oak nowadays but a higher percentage of more recent barrels than previously, ages his village wines in just 10% to 15% new oak, but even his grand crus get no more than 25%. He also cut back somewhat on his use of whole clusters in '16, limiting the percentage to 20% for his grand crus and top premier crus and destemming his village wines entirely. With one exception, the ‘16s were still in barrel when I tasted them in November.

Arlaud thinks his 2015s will be for long aging, noting that the dryness of the summer “blocked the degradation of the tartaric acidity. You can find wines that have both strong acidity and surmaturité,” he noted. He pointed out that '15 would normally have been a very difficult vintage for his Bonnes-Mares on white clay, but he has been working this soil with a horse and he believes that that helped the roots absorb the needed rainfall in August, helping to reduce hydric stress. But he’s also convinced that many 2015 reds will always be hard.

Cyprien Arlaud bases his picking dates on "ripeness and texture of tannins" and is not afraid of the possibility that acidity levels will drop as he waits for phenolic maturity. He told me that he had problems with loss of acidity in 2000, 2006 and 2007, but not in recent years thanks to his use of cover crop between the rows.

Arlaud started harvesting on September 7, with potential alcohol levels mostly between 13% and 13.5%, and did not chaptalize. The only sorting was to eliminate very small berries on his younger vines that did not ripen properly, plus those that had been burned as a result of his sulfur treatments against mildew. He destemmed his village cuvées entirely in 2015, noting that he "likes to use vendange entier just for certain wines" (between 20% and 30% for all of his grand crus in 2015) and that he doesn't want to change the style of wines his customers are used to. Arlaud chills his incoming fruit to about 13 degrees C. if it comes in warmer than that, and it can take five to ten days for the fermentations to start. Like many of his colleagues on the Côte de Nuits, Arlaud reduced his percentage of new oak in 2015, to 15% for his premier crus and 20% for his grand crus. None of the Arlaud '15s had been racked at the time of my November visit.