2017 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

According to Jean-Marc Pillot, there are two types of white Burgundies in 2017: those from fruit picked in August with very high acidity, and those harvested under cooler conditions in September. Pillot himself started picking on September 3. He had advanced the harvest date by about a week from his original plan, “so the fruit was obviously ripe” and Pillot did very little chaptalization. He expressed the opinion that 13.5% natural alcohol in 2017 “was too ripe.”

One reason that Pillot moved up his harvest was that the quantities in his premier cru vineyards were not as huge as he had originally anticipated. He noted that he had “pulled leaves everywhere, very early,” and that that measure helped to limit yields to 45 to 50 hectoliters per hectare and up to the permitted maximum of 57 for village wines. “There wasn’t much malic acidity but tartaric acidity levels were healthy so the wines have a good acid balance,” he said, adding that “the 2015s are much richer, heavier wines in comparison. The ‘17s are elegant wines with energy; they’re not overly opulent.”

Incidentally, Pillot told me that he has “drastically cut back on sulfitage.” He makes sulfur additions only in the fermentation cuves, not in the press, which encourages a darker color in the juice and allows the oxidizable phenolics to precipitate out of the wine, which should enable it to age longer without oxidizing. “That’s a better idea than protecting the fruit too much from the beginning,” explains Pillot.