2015 Vosne-Romanée Les Petits-Monts 1er 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.

Two thousand fifteen was just the third vintage for the young Amélie Berthaut, who told me that due to her limited experience she can’t really put the 2015 into a larger context yet. “Two thousand thirteen was difficult and 2014 was better,” she told me in December. “Two thousand fifteen brought great grapes.” She started harvesting Pinot Noir on September 7, then stopped for several days, eventually picking until September 21, with potential alcohol levels ranging from 12.5% to 13.4%. She maintained that the rain did not compromise grape sugars but resulted in riper skins.

Following a cold soak at 10 degrees C. that lasted three to seven days according to the cuvée, Berthaut did only two or three punchdowns for each wine. She noted that the wines vinified with some vendange entier took longer to ferment, as the whole clusters needed more time to release their sugars. All of the wines except for the estate’s Bourgogne did their malolactic fermentations in barrel, as Berthaut maintains that the greater exchange between the lees and the air brings a micro-oxidation that allows her to skip a sulfur addition.

As I noted last year, as of 2015 all of Berthaut’s wines will be bottled under the Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet label. Her domain consists of her vines at her father’s estate in Fixin (ex-Domaine Berthaut) and an inherited portion of her mother’s vineyards in Vosne-Romanée (Domaine Gerbet). She also offers a number of wines from Gevrey-Chambertin, with her fruit coming through metayage arrangements.