2015 Chassagne-Montrachet Village

The 2016s at this address were not tasteable at the end of May as they were at every possible stage of evolution; none had finished their malos and some were still working through their sugars. The wines were slated to be racked from 350-liter barrels into cuves before the 2017 harvest, then bottled next March. Marc Bachelet believes that the ‘16s will be best for early drinking and "will not have a lot of interest for aging.” The 2015s, on the other hand, took on more freshness from their nourishment on their lees, especially when the lees were in suspension during the wines' second winter in stainless steel. “They have a roundness for early drinking but a lot of dry extract to age, even if they don’t have the density of the ‘14s,” noted Bachelet. “But they are minerally wines with power,” he added. He and brother Alexandre have slowly and steadily reduced their percentage of new oak since 2007 and beginning with vintage 2012 have been using mostly 350-liter barrels.

The Bachelet brothers finished harvesting on September 3, with potential alcohol levels ranging from 12% and 13.2% and very little malic acidity in the grapes. “The ripeness varied according to the level of hydric stress,” noted Alexandre Bachelet. “In general, we had the best ripeness and balance in our Puligny fruit, and even though we picked very early we did not have surmaturité.” Brother Marc added that there was very little juice in the grapes in 2015, as in 2009, which is a vintage they love, and that the growing season brought strong dry extract and salinity. “Two thousand fifteen is an outstanding year, and not atypical,” Alexandre summarized.

The Bachelets did not acidify and reported that there was very little change in the wines during the malos. Nor did they stir the lees, as they are now working more reductively than ever before, and they have also further reduced their percentage of new oak. According to Marc Bachelet, they’re also pressing more strongly now as they need to bring more lees into their 350-liter barrels. “This definitely works against premature oxidation,” he explained.