2016 Bourgogne Côte d’Or

“Un bon millésime de Pinot” is how Philippe Charlopin described 2016. “The wines have good acidity and plenty of alcohol, but it’s hard to compare 2016 to another year. The wines are fatter than the 1996s; they’re a bit like the ‘78s in their acid structure. Two thousand sixteen is a vintage to drink early or late.” Charlopin harvested from September 23 through October 6, with grape sugars ranging from 11.5% to 12.5%, and did a bit of chaptalization. He told me he made almost nothing in Marsannay due to the frost but that Gevrey-Chambertin was “okay.” Elsewhere, yields varied widely. Charlopin destemmed all of his fruit, did a full eight days of pre-fermentation cold maceration, extracted very lightly, and allowed the sugars to finish in tank following the pressing. The malos were “all over the place,” said Charlopin, with his Vosne-Romanée cuvées not finishing until August.