2015 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru

I focused on the 2015s in bottle during my visit to Domaine Prieur as only a handful of the estate's ‘16s had finished their malolactic fermentations. The '16s had not yet been racked and were holding a lot of carbonic gas, which winemaker Nadine Gublin noted is constructive for protecting the wines. She told me that they gained in density and aromatic intensity during the malos and that they were previously too tight and linear.

The alcoholic fermentations were easy in 2016 and the wines finished very dry, at around one gram per liter, Gublin told me, adding that the ‘15s finished with more like 1.5 to 2 grams. The fruit was picked mostly with potential alcohol at 12.5% or higher and some cuvées were chaptalized lightly. Although crop levels were seriously affected by frost in ’16, Domaine Prieur made all of their cuvées, some of them in tiny quantities. Incidentally, at the time of my visit, the estate was expecting a full crop in 2017 following years of shortages.

Domaine Prieur started harvesting their Chardonnay vineyards in 2015 on September 3, after there was "just enough rain on August 31 to wet the dust," in the words of estate director Edouard Labruyère, whose family led the group that purchased Domaine Prieur in 2008. This sunny growing season yielded grapes with very low levels of malic acidity and wines with 12.7% to 13.5% natural alcohol. Labruyère told me that he finds the salinity of 2003 in the young '15s and believes that the wines will be accessible in their youth but will need some time to express their terroir. "It's not a classical vintage," he summarized, "but it's a lovely introduction to our wines."

“Two thousand fifteen was not an extreme vintage,” said enologist Nadine Gublin. “August was mostly temperate, with well-timed rains. Obviously it was a very sunny year but August recalibrated things.” And yields were mostly under 30 hectoliters per hectare, she added, due in part to the lingering effects of the hailstorm in 2014. Domaine Prieur harvested its Chardonnay vineyards in 2015 between September 3 and 7, with none of them as high as 14% potential alcohol, Gublin added. There was no chaptalization or acidification and the post-malo wines had acidity levels between 3.5 and 3.6 grams per liter, with pHs normally in the 3.45 to 3.5 range. Most of the malolactic fermentations took place in May but a few wines had not yet finished by the time of my visit.

Incidentally, owner Edouard Labruyère reported that the terrible frost in late April virtually wiped out the potential 2016 crop in the following vineyards: Chevalier-Montrachet, Montrachet, Echézeaux, Musigny, Meursault Clos de Mazeray, Beaune Grèves Blanc and Meursault Santenots. “Our vineyard manager told me he's never seen it as bad in 35 years,” said Labruyère. “The non-impacted vines are growing like crazy but without fruit. The harvest may be like Sauternes, requiring three to five passes through the affected vines.”