2016 Chambolle-Musigny Village

Lest you think that the Côte de Beaune bore the brunt of the April frost in 2016, Ghislaine Barthod reported that the yields in her many vineyards in Chambolle-Musigny were the lowest of her winemaking career, which dates back to 1986. Vines on the Morey side of the appellation were the least affected but Barthod did not make any Combottes or Chatelots and yields for the rest of her vineyards were down by 50% to 70%. Barthod noted that her lower-altitude vineyards generally produced wines with a blacker fruit character in 2016, while vines higher on the hillside yielded wines with more floral and even citrus lift.

Barthod needed to vinify in much smaller tanks than usual, and had to buy a few new ones to handle the vintage. She started harvesting on September 24 with grape sugars in the healthy 12.7% to 13.2% range and she only chaptalized a few of her wines. She told me that pHs in 2016 are around 3.3, and that the wines have slightly better acidity than the 2015s. Happily, these ‘16s are neither hard nor dry and their tannins are reasonably pliant; with just one or two exceptions the wines do not show an imbalance owing to the very low crop levels.

As I tasted a number of the bottled 2015s with Barthod, she noted that she would wait eight to ten years to drink her premier crus "as a general rule." She added that she's enjoying the 2006s now, but that it's still too early for the 2009s and 2010s.