1995 Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras 1er Cru

Yields here in '96 and '95 are typical for a quality-conscious Burgundy domain in the waning years of the 21st century: about 30 h/h in '95 and a good 40 to 42 in '96. Ghislaine Barthod describes 1996 as a good vintage, though not in the league of '95 or, especially, '93 at this address. She knocked off a lot of fruit in August in an attempt to ripen the rest. Ultimately, grape sugars were roughly the same as those of the previous year. The '95s here were 100% destemmed, as these small-berried, concentrated grapes already offered plenty of guts. But Barthod left a portion of the stems in '96: the grapes were healthy, she explains, and they needed a bit more structure. Still, she found the tannins rather pronounced in November. She believes that the fining helped to round the tannins of the '95s, so I assume the '96s will be fined as well. Barthod planned to bottle them in March and April, a couple months earlier than usual.