2016 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

Winemaker Nadine Gublin described 2015 as “a very classic vintage of fresh wines from a late harvest, more red fruits than black in character.” The estate started its harvest with Pinot Noir on September 20, with grape sugars between 11.5% and 12.5%, and Gublin chaptalized lightly “for the texture of the wines” (they will be bottled with alcohol levels between 12.5% and 12.8%). Yields ranged widely according to the effects of frost, with estate-wide production down about 50% from a normal year. Gublin carried out less extraction than usual in ’16, punching down the cap twice a day but only for the first four or five days of the fermentations. “Some people will compare 2016 to 2010,” said Gublin, “but I find the ‘16s more consistent, with more matière sèche. And the '16s have much less tartaric acidity than the 2015s but similar pHs.” The malolactic fermentations finished between April and July of last year and all of the ‘16s were still on their lees in barrel, unracked, when I sampled them in January.

As for the ‘15s, “the tartaric acidity keeps the wines easily digestible and builds the structure of the vintage,” according to Gublin. “Although there’s a lot of dry material in the wines, and a high skin-to-juice ratio, 2015 doesn’t act like a hot year.” But alcohol levels for the estate wines are between 13.5% and 14% with no chaptalization. “Aromas are typically blacker in 2015 and redder in 2016,” Gublin noted. She added that the ‘15s are in the process of closing down in bottle, which for her is a pleasant surprise. “The ‘15s will age a long time, but the ‘16s will age well too, on their brilliant fruit.”

Incidentally, the Labruyère-Prieur Sélection wines are a négociant project started by Edouard Labruyère in 2013. Labruyère, whose family owns Château Rouget in Pomerol and Domaine Labruyère in Moulin à Vent in addition to Domaine Prieur, buys only fruit, and his wines are made by Gublin at Domaine Prieur.