2016 Echézeaux Grand Cru

Amélie Berthaut described 2016 as “a special year,” and not in a good way. “It was psychologically difficult, and we didn’t even try the wines during the winter because of our memories of the growing season.” Berthaut started harvesting at the end of September and finished with her Hautes-Côtes de Nuits on October 12. The frost damage ranged widely, said Berthaut: “Fixin was bad, but not as bad as Marsannay; Vosne-Romanée was okay; and in Gevrey it depends.” Her severely frosted vineyards came in with up to 13.5% potential alcohol, but Berthaut had to pick some of these parcels very late because they had not yet achieved proper phenolic maturity. “The ‘16s are not as warm as the ‘15s but they’re fresh and more Pinot-like,” she summarized.

Berthaut likes silky wines and is a bit tannin-averse. She told me that her father used to start punching down the cap at the beginning of the fermentations but that she prefers to do remontages at the beginning and pigeages only at the end—and, even then, just total of three punchdowns for each cuvée. But she also has increased the duration of post-fermentation maceration to a week or more. Total maceration time is about 25 days, but Berthaut is convinced that this approach helps her wines avoid hard tannins.