2015 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

“When I woke up on the morning of the frost, the cars were totally white,” said winemaker François Millet. “The Combe [d'Ambin] is quite large and it connects to the top of the plateaus. The frost fried nearly all of the primary buds and we had to wait three weeks for the secondary buds to begin. We lost 70% of our production overall [the harvest here was even smaller than in 2003, 1998 and 1991], although the ripeness gap was mostly erased during the warm summer.” Luckily, the estate did not lose further production to mildew or oidium. “It was more downslope where people struggled with mildew,” noted Millet. The estate began harvesting on September 24, with potential alcohol around 13%, and Millet destemmed all of the fruit. He only punched down the Bonnes-Mares, noting that with the half-filled tanks in 2016 it was necessary to be very careful about extraction.

As to the style of the wines, Millet describes 2016 as “a very particular vintage due to getting most of our fruit from the secondary buds. This is the source of the wines’ freshness. We have surprising red fruit character for a very ripe year—jellied, confectionary fruits. They remind me of le joli moi de mai: not too hot, not too cold and very floral.” The malos mostly finished in July and August and the wines have pHs around 3.5, but with healthy levels of acidity. “They will age well on their mineral energy,” said Millet.

Millet is a big fan of 2015. “The wines have everything: concentration, body and structure but also freshness and elegance. It will be a long-term vintage.” The drought, Millet claims, was ultimately an advantage thanks to the well-timed August rain. “We were able to keep good tartaric acidity even if the malic was burned off. Two thousand fifteen was more about drought than extended heat; if we had had a long heat wave we would have lost the tartaric acidity.” But it was also important not to pick too late and to delay the malos, he added. He chilled the cellar to about 40 degrees F. and the malos finished in July.

Winemaker François Millet finds a lot of tension in the young 2015s but on the damp day I tasted these wines in November they stood out more for their density, flamboyant power and almost chocolatey ripeness. The estate harvested between September 3 and 7 under what Millet described as “perfect, cool conditions.” He went on: “Two thousand fifteen was a drought year but not a heat-wave growing season. The drought was responsible for the concentration of the wines. But the pHs are not above 3.4, which explains the vintage’s combination of freshness and power.” Millet, who has a very wide vocabulary to describe the nature of the fruit produced every year, described 2015 as “a lot of black fruits, sorbet fruits, very ripe but fresh."

Yields were just 20 to 25 hectoliters per hectare, as “not a lot of juice came out of the press.” Alcohol levels, said Millet, are “a good 13%,” owing to the severe drought conditions in July followed by “just enough rain in August.” The wines were racked in July following the malos and had been racked a second time shortly before my vintage “to remove the lees.”