2014 Chablis Village

"Some frost, some hail, but not terrible," said Laurent Tribut about the spring of 2016. He had a bit of hail in his village parcels in 2015 but still waited another five or six days to harvest, dropping the dried grapes and then pressing very softly, as he found the grapes "a bit flat" after the storm. Still, said Tribut, "it would be an error to drink the 2015s too early." At the time of my visit, the Côte de Léchet was still in the middle of its malolactic fermentation, having taken forever to start owing to its very low pH of 2.85.

Tribut bottled his 2014s at the end of April (except for a small batch of the village wine that was bottled before the 2015 harvest) and was worried that the wines would be too narrow and clenched for me to taste. But their high quality was clear to see. Tribut finds the 2014s "in the style of 2012, 2010 and 2008."

Tribut started harvesting the same time as his brother-in-law Vincent Dauvissat but now he picks by himself. He purchased his own more modern press before the 2013 harvest, which he says enabled him to do a softer pressing of the potentially problematic grapes of that vintage. He told me he produced a fairly healthy 40 hectoliters per hectare in 2013, which he described as "not bad. I never make very high or very low yields."

Tribut compares his 2014s to his 2012s, noting that they are very taut wines. His fruit came in ripe, with potential alcohol around 13.2% to 13.3% for the crus. On my latest visit, I happened to see a jerry-rigged desk buried with paperwork in Tribut's tiny tank room. He described is as "my private space."