2015 Clos de La Roche Grand Cru

Benoît Stehly was reasonably well-placed to withstand the climate challenges of 2016. He had next to no production of Côte de Beaune, Marsannay or Passetoutgrains but considered himself lucky in Morey-Saint-Denis and Gevrey-Chambertin. He lost about 40% of his crop in Chambolle-Musigny villages and in Bonnes-Mares but the north was spared and he eventually made more wine in 2016 than in 2015, in which crop levels were “down 35% to 40% everywhere.”

Stehly told me he “loves” the style of 2016, and he prefers his ‘16s to his ‘15s for their balance and elegance. “It’s unusual to have very fruity and very fresh wines at the same time,” he went on, “and the tannins are wonderfully ripe.” He added that his ‘14s were “more friendly, gentle and simple than the ‘16s,” but it must be noted that quality here has been on a sharp upswing in just the last four or five years (even if Stehly was able to “put his ideas in place” in 2009). Among other recent improvements here, in 2013 Stehly started working with grass between the vines, which has helped him reduce vine vigor and bring yields down, and with vintage 2016 he has been able to move the fermented wines from tank into barrels without pumping them.

He started harvesting his frosted parcels on September 27 but did not pick until October 4 on the northern side of Morey-Saint-Denis and finishing on October 12. The pre-fermentation cold soak lasted six or seven days, then the fermentations went quickly. Stehly kept about 30% whole clusters “due to the ripe grapes.” He cooled his cellar to delay the malolactic fermentations, which eventually finished in June and July. All of the ‘16s were still in barrel when I tasted them in November.

In 2015, Lignier’s “choice was to focus on the freshness of the vintage.” He started harvesting very early, on September 4, and says he finished before rainfall on the 11th, and bottled the wines in February of 2017. “Burgundy wines need to be fresh and energetic—more than just friendly, like Pinot Noir is elsewhere in the world.” He believes that his 2015s have started to close down in bottle since September, but added that the 14s are now opening up.

My first visit to this estate in at least 20 years was a revelation, as this large domain, which had underperformed for so many years, has been put on a positive path by George Lignier’s nephew Benoît Stehly, who grew up in Dijon and had long had a desire to change things at the family estate. (Domaine Georges Lignier owns 16 hectares of vines, including important holdings in Clos Saint-Denis and Clos de la Roche.) Stehly began working with his uncle in 2002 and took over responsibility for the vineyards and winemaking in 2007. “But it was really in 2009 that I was able to put all of my ideas in place,” he told me in December. “My uncle wasn't wild about winemaking, and he didn't always do things at the right time.” Stehly quickly purchased his own bottling equipment and stopped filtering his red wines in 2009. He has also purchased additional tanks; previously he left each wine in tank for a month prior to bottling and thus had to bottle over a longer period.

One of the problems at this estate through the 1990s and early ‘00s was excessive yields, but Stehly emphasized that he does not want to produce tiny quantities. Although he initiated regular green harvesting and does more meticulous sorting of the grapes at harvest time, he told me that “20 hectoliters per hectare is not the best way to express Pinot Noir. Thirty to 35 is best, even 40.” In recent years he has cut back on plowing, as he believes it’s a bad idea to cut the roots, and he now uses grass between the rows to introduce some competition for the vines. There were a lot of old vines here but little replanting was being done. Stehly has been focusing on replacing dead vines rather than pulling out entire parcels, explaining that “a vineyard is like a city. I prefer adding one new family at a time to building a lot of new houses.”

Stehly’s more precise winemaking is dramatically evident in his delicate but sometimes lean 2014s, but to my taste 2015 is the best vintage here in decades. The top ‘15s offer an uncanny combination of power and finesse, with utterly captivating perfume. Stehly began harvesting early, on September 3, having moved up his picking dates just six days earlier. (He told me that he used to be proud to be among the last harvesters in the vines, but now he’s more concerned with balance, and he admitted that he picked too late in 2007 and made wines “without interest or energy.” Stehly described the potential alcohol levels in 2015 as moderate, adding that he finds wines that are over 13.5% alcohol following chaptalization “too burning, too heavy—they lose their freshness of fruit.” He chaptalized very lightly in 2015 to prolong the fermentations. Stehly does not decant much at the beginning: he begins with six or seven liters of lees per barrel, or much more than his uncle used. The 2015s had been racked and blended once, last August following the malols, and were returned to the same barrels with a portion of their fine lees. Owing to the low production in 2015, none of the post-malo wines were aging in the warmest of Lignier’s three cellars at the time of my December visit.