2015 Montrachet Grand Cru

Before he showed me his 2015s, Eric Rémy fleshed out the growing season in some detail. From late March until the end of July, there were just 15 days with precipitation, while in May of '16 alone there were 20. A key weather event in 2015 was the 50 millimeters of rain that fell in mid-June, after the flowering, which helped the vines survive the hot summer that began later that month. “Between June and the harvest there were 35 days with temperatures of 30 degree C (86 F) or higher, including 12 at 35 degrees C or more,” he told me. “But well-timed showers in August de-blocked the maturing process, and the sugars climbed quickly." By the time Domaine Leflaive started harvesting on August 28, potential alcohol levels were closing in on 13%. The grand crus were mostly picked on Monday, August 31, because heavy rain and hail were forecasted for that night. But while Chablis suffered mightily from hail, Puligny-Montrachet had just three millimeters of rain, said Rémy.

“We had great-looking grapes and didn’t have to use our sorting tables,” he told me. He did not chaptalize or acidify, and because the grapes were picked with sound levels of tartaric acidity, the wines didn’t change much during their secondary fermentations. In fact, most of the Leflaive 2015s have total acidity levels between 4.1 and 4.5. “In terms of technical analysis, the 2015s are close to the 2014s and there’s no reason to believe that they won’t age well," he said. "Two thousand fifteen is a great vintage and it’s not atypical.” Rémy ages his premier crus in about 20% new oak and uses about 25% for his grand crus, with the tiny quantity of Montrachet done in a single new barrel. Beginning with the 2014 vintage, the estate is bottling its wine entirely with DIAM 30s.