2016 Monthélie Les Duresses

Dominique Lafon, who started harvesting on September 19 and lost two-thirds of his normal Pinot Noir production in 2016, planned to move “even his big wines” into tanks by December or January and bottle them a bit earlier than usual. He described pHs as normal and acidity levels as lower than in 2015, but finds the '16s very fresh. He harvested between 12.5% and 12.8% potential alcohol, destemmed all of his fruit and chaptalized lightly.

Lafon told me that he rates 2016 and 2015 roughly the same for red wines. “Two thousand fifteen is everybody’s red Burgundy vintage because it has all the elements of a great year, including a lot of dry extract, which is a bonus. But I plan to cellar more 2016s for their elegance. And certainly the ‘16s have the fruit and balance for a long life in bottle.” Lafon noted that his 2015s have fairly high acidity (and pHs similar to those in 2010 and 2005) but that it’s covered by the intensity and richness of the fruit. But he emphasized that the ‘15s are riper than the 2005s. Lafon now uses Diam 30 closures for all of his wines, despite the fact that he feared his 2015 reds would quickly shut down in bottle. But he told me that his early impression of the wines is that they’re more focused and precise, with very clean fruit, and that the wines haven’t gone into reduction.