2015 Montrachet Grand Cru

Having not dined at A Wong for a while due to the pandemic, I was eager to return. So when a friend came over from the other side of the pond last August, I joined a small gathering.

Gérard Boudot, who made a bit more than half a crop in 2016, told me it’s hard to compare this vintage with an earlier year. “Maybe a fatter version of 2007 for some estates,” he offered. “But there’s a huge disparity between cuvées in 2016 due to the frost. Some wines will be best early for their fruit but the rest should be normal mid-term agers—up to 12 years. The ripeness is not exceptional and the wines are not especially aromatic today, but they are solid, not fragile, and the acidity is good.” Boudot did very little chaptalization beyond his Puligny-Montrachet La Garenne, and limited the percentage of new oak for his premier crus to about 22%. He planned to rack his ‘16s in July but won’t bottle anything until January—and later for his top crus.

The 2015s, in contrast, “have the fruit to give early pleasure but will probably be good at every stage. The wines are easy but I don’t mean that pejoratively and the terroirs come through. The grapes were golden without surmaturité and there was nothing to eliminate on the sorting table. The wines are not especially intellectual but neither will they need long aging.” Boudot considers the vintage to be outstanding, noting that the 2009s were “more marked by their vintage." Incidentally, he told me that he's drinking wines earlier for their fruit as he gets older.