2015 Meursault Clos des Ambres

Arnaud Ente, always a very early picker, began in 2015 on August 26. The grape maturity, he told me, was heterogeneous depending on hydric stress (as well as on the amount of oidium), but Ente noted that a beneficial shower in mid-August had de-blocked the maturity in most of his vineyards and that most of his fruit came with about 13% potential alcohol. It was also very hot during the first few days of his harvest but he has a system to chill the incoming fruit. In the last hot days of the growing season, malic acidity levels fell quickly, but the level of the more stable tartaric acidity was normal—in fact, he said, a bit elevated for a very warm year—as it was not precipitated out of the grapes during the mostly very dry season.

“The 2015s should be very accessible young,” said Ente, “but there’s no reason why they won’t last well. Yes, 2015 is a bit different from the classic years, but the grapes were healthy and the wines have very good balance.” In fact, while he compared his 2014s to his 2010s, he noted that “the 2015s are more like the 2012s, although the 2012s are superconcentrated and musclebound today while the 2015s are more digestible.” The new set of wines, which finished their malos by the end of January, will go into stainless steel tanks before the 2016 harvest, where they will rest until they are bottled in early 2017.