2015 Meursault Les Tillets

David Croix, who vinified the 2016s at Maison Camille Giroud before leaving his long-time position there to join Jean-Marc Roulot at the beginning of this year, was not able to show me the estate’s 2016 whites as the wines were still finishing their malos and were hard to read. The ‘15s, on the other hand, had been bottled between February and April and were not yet showing any signs of shutting down. According to Croix, “it’s hard to say if 2015 is a classic year, but it’s unique in the sense of having both ripeness and energy.” He went on: “In 2015 the fruit is broad and open but not overripe or heavy. We find some white fruits and pear, not just yellow fruits like in 2009.”

As is his normal practice, Jean-Marc Roulot picked early in 2015, starting on August 28. The finished wines have 13.3% to 13.7% alcohol without chaptalization and total acidity levels are in the very healthy 4.3 to 4.5 grams-per-liter range. Roulot uses just 15% to 18% new oak for his various village wines and 20% to 33% for his premier crus.

Roulot picked early in 2015, beginning on August 27 and finishing on September 4. "I had the experience of 2009 in my head," he explained. Roulot had “a good crop of savory, thick-skinned grapes that were hard to press” and potential alcohol levels ranged between 13% and 13.6% (he did not chaptalize). “It would have been a disaster to wait until September 8,” he said. Acidity levels following the malolactic fermentations are in the range of 3.8 to 4.0 grams per liter, with pHs between 3.1 and 3.25. “The 2015s are a mix of 2012 and the sunnier 2009 vintage,” he summarized, adding later in our tasting that some of the wines resemble the 2005s “in their heaviness.” He told me that he might wait until the end of August or early September to rack in order to get more tension in the wines. But I was pleasantly surprised by the energy in a number of Roulot’s ‘15s and he maintained that 2015 is “not atypical here.”