2015 Echézeaux Grand Cru

Régis Forey told me that his crop losses to frost in 2016 were greatest in Prémeaux and that his vines in Clos Vougeot and Echézeaux were essentially spared. But at this point, he noted, he doesn’t see any clear differences between his frosted and non-frosted wines. Forey, who started picking on the late side, on September 29, finds more red fruits—especially raspberry—than black in his young ‘16s. He also finds these wines more minerally and taut than his ’15s (he vinified most of his ‘16s with about 40% whole clusters).

The earlier vintage has good structure and tannins for aging, but he noted that the ‘15s have been closing down in bottle in the last few months. Forey totally destemmed in 2015 “owing to big, tannic seeds: I did not want to make overly tannic wines.” Incidentally, I also got the impression that he prefers his ‘14s to his ‘15s “for their typicity, mineral character and chiseled quality.” I should note that the samples I tasted from tonneaux had not yet been racked or sulfured.

Régis Forey was a very late harvester in 2015, picking after the rain "because the maturity had been blocked and the grapes were not ripe." Forey maintained that the grapes gained acidity as a result of the rain but did not lose sugar, and that the seeds got riper; he believes the resulting wines are crunchier and better balanced as a result. He destemmed all of his fruit in 2015, and did very little chaptalization and no acidification. And he minimized his extraction to two pigeages and one remontage per day during the early part of the fermentation and every two days toward the end. Forey still uses a very high percentage of new oak but emphasized that he uses "very little toast."

Forey compared his young 2015s to his 2010s "in terms of tension," but even though the newer set of wines features mostly very healthy pHs, they show a distinctly dark-fruit character and most of them come across as a bit chocolatey or chunky. In November, I preferred Forey's 2014s, and even though he's confident that his 2015s "will be great for consumers and restaurants," he also favors the earlier vintage.