2015 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles

There were some losses to frost in Charmes-Chambertin and Chambertin in 2016, said Loïc Dugat, but estate-wide production was down no more than 20%. “And the flowering wasn’t especially long,” he added. “It was only irregular for the frosted wines, but fast ripening during the warm summer closed the gap and there was only a slight difference at the end.” The Dugats, whose vines and cellar were certified as bio by Veritas in '16, started harvesting on September 21 and picked in six days, with potential alcohol levels around 13% following the elimination of some of the latest-ripening grapes.

Loïc carried out what he described as normal extraction in 2016, which means a cold soak lasting several days, one or two pigeages plus one or two remontages per day during the fermentation, with the temperature mounting no higher than 32 degrees C., and a bit of post-fermentation maceration—or a total of about three weeks on the skins. The long, slow malolactic fermentations mostly finished in July and August and although the wines were mostly racked then, they were still on their lees in barrel when I visited the estate in November. The '16s will be bottled at between 13% and 13.3% alcohol “or a bit higher,” according to Dugat, “slightly more than in 2015 but definitely not at 14%.” He described the ‘16s as “classic in the positive sense of the word," adding that the ‘16s are fresher while the ‘15s are more exuberant. The Dugats generally vinified with a higher percentage of whole clusters in 2015, as the grapes were perfectly ripe while in 2016 they had some issues with the later-flowering clusters.

If my notes are missing descriptions of the wines' colors, that's because the family's gorgeous small vaulted barrel cellar, which dates back to the 11th century, is one of the dimmest in Burgundy, and just about any liquid would appear black here. But the Dugats' wines are routinely among the darkest Burgundies, even at the dining room table.

Thanks to their perennially low yields, Bernard and his son Loïc Dugat harvested in 2015 between September 5 and 10, bringing in their fruit with potential alcohol between 13% and 13.3% and doing no chaptalization. The estate-wide yield was just 22 hectoliters per hectare, less than that of the previous year owing to widespread coulure at flowering. Loïc, who has been working with his father for the past 20 years, officially assumed responsibility for vinification in 2015—not a bad vintage in which to start. He told me he’s looking to make “a less brutal style, with more minerality and roundness,” working with a high percentage of whole clusters, like his father did. But he noted that there has already been a lot of evolution here since 2010.

Dugat described 2015 as “almost exceptional,” noting that it's too early to make definitive judgments. “The wines lack nothing,” he went on. “They have concentration and balance, freshness and minerality. They’re ripe but not roasted, and the vines were not blocked by drought.” Dugat told me that the estate carries out its pigeages “by feeling: there’s no rule here.” The wines had been racked once, in late summer following the long malolactic fermentations, and they were still in barrels on their fine lees when I tasted them in early December.

Incidentally, although the Dugat wines are always deeply colored, my descriptions of their appearance are only approximate. Their gorgeous little vaulted cellar, built in the 11th and 12th centuries as part of a small abbey, is among the darkest in Burgundy (with Domaine Jean-Jacques Confuron’s barrel cellar probably the dimmest of all the estates I visit).