2015 Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru

As Alain and Sophie Meunier were on vacation in late January, I tasted this year with their son Louis, who is now involved in winemaking at the family estate. Louis told me that the domain lost more than 60% of its production in 2016. Their Bourgogne vines were crushed by frost and they did not make their Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru. Meunier added that acidity levels were sound in 2016 and that pHs are around 3.4. The estate did zero punchdowns for their Nuits Chaboeufs, Vosne Beaumonts and Clos Vougeot, but I was unable to taste the latter two wines, as they had just been bottled and quantities were tiny.

Alain Meunier, whose remarkably dim cellar makes it impossible to accurately describe the color of his wines, noted that owing to coulure and tiny grapes in 2015, it took 10% more kilos of grapes to make the same quantity of wine. And the small yields (an average of 33 hectoliters per hectare, vs. 39 in 2014) gave the wines concentration and a richness of sugar. He harvested between September 4 and 10, bringing in his fruit with potential alcohol up to 13.4% and lightly chaptalizing some of his lesser wines.

With thick skins, big seeds and very little juice, the fruit had “major potential for extraction,” Meunier told me in December, and he cut back somewhat on his number of punchdowns, which can be as high as 30 per wine but was more like 15 to 18 in 2015. The malolactic fermentations were irregular, but the premier crus all finished by the end of January and Meunier racked most of the ‘15s in March. (The malos are usually fairly quick here owing to Meunier’s minimal use of SO2.) Meunier describes the ‘15s as “sturdy and a bit tough” and believes they will need longer élevage than normal; he planned to bottle his more important wines in April or May.

Alain Meunier, whose remarkably dim cellar makes it impossible to accurately describe the color of his wines, noted that owing to coulure and tiny grapes in 2015, it took 10% more kilos of grapes to make the same quantity of wine. And the small yields (an average of 33 hectoliters per hectare, vs. 39 in 2014) gave the wines concentration and a richness of sugar. He harvested between September 4 and 10, bringing in his fruit with potential alcohol up to 13.4% and lightly chaptalizing some of his lesser wines.

With thick skins, big seeds and very little juice, the fruit had “major potential for extraction,” Meunier told me in December, and he cut back somewhat on his number of punchdowns, which can be as high as 30 per wine but was more like 15 to 18 in 2015. The malolactic fermentations were irregular, but the premier crus all finished by the end of January and Meunier racked most of the ‘15s in March. (The malos are usually fairly quick here owing to Meunier’s minimal use of SO2.) Meunier describes the ‘15s as “sturdy and a bit tough” and believes they will need longer élevage than normal; he planned to bottle his more important wines in April or May.