2014 Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru

Tasting at this large domaine in Préhy just two weeks after the savage hailstorm of May 27 was a bittersweet experience. The 2014s I tasted here are among the finest wines Domaine Brocard has bottled to date, but the normally spectacular view of the vines from Brocard’s tasting room was dismal on a gloomy Saturday morning. In early June, the room’s picture windows normally open on a sea of green stretching to the horizon but the scene this year looked like nuclear winter, with the vines as stripped bare of fruit and vegetation as they normally are in December. Jean-Marc Brocard told me that the estate has already suffered massive crop losses, especially in its village holdings, with 120 of its 200 hectares of vines more or less knocked out of action for 2016—and with effects lingering into 2017. “The ancient growers are already calling 2016 ‘a year of nothing’,” said Julien Brocard.

Production here was also reduced by hail in 2015, but in this case the storm took place just a few days before the harvest. As a result, said Julien Brocard, the family started picking five days earlier than they had anticipated, beginning with Les Clos, Montmain and Montée de Tonnerre. “The leaves were affected but not the fruit,” he told me, adding that the hail reduced potential alcohol levels in the fruit but did not have much impact on acidity. “We thought we were being forced to harvest the hailed-on vineyards too early, but we liked the balance of the wines after the fermentations. The vintage has a tendency to be too round, but the freshness of the wines from early-picked grapes came back after a few months of aging on the lees, and the wines are not at all heavy.” Acidity levels are in the range of 3.8 to 4.2 grams per liter, and yields were “correct,” according to Brocard, at 40 to 60 hectoliters per hectare. “The 2015s should be agreeable young but they also have the stuffing to age.”

Brocard describes 2014 as “a superb vintage for long aging: the wines are harmonious, concentrated and structured. All of the terroirs reveal themselves clearly.“ He went on: “The 2014s are more elegant than the more minerally 2012s and they should also last longer on their balance.” Potential alcohol levels in 2014 were in the 12% to 12.5% range, and acidity levels in the finished wines around 4.3 to 4.4 grams per liter.

Brocard started harvesting in 2014 on September 15 “with the little appellations,” then waited because the skins were still hard, said winemaker Odile Van der Moere. They made the allowed yields in most parcels, bringing in the fruit with potential alcohol in the 11.8% to 12% range and chaptalizing about 0.5%. Van der Moere describes the young wines as having very good acidity, good material and nice early harmony. “For us, 2012 is exceptional and 2014 is just below it in quality,” she summarized. “We were afraid of the acidity at harvest-time but after the malolactic fermentations the acidity levels are in the moderate 4.2 to 4.3 range. The wines are taut and lemony, but also show finesse.”

Two thousand was another matter. “The vintage was a misery and the wines are difficult to understand,” said Van der Moere. “The grapes needed a long time to develop minerality but we had to pick a bit early to protect what we had against the spreading rot. They will be round, charming and exotic wines for early drinking. They’re not totally ripe and yet they convey a ripeness. It’s really ¬un millésime inconnu in terms of how it will age. But with yields down 40% from normal, the wines have plenty of material.”