2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Cuvée Bertin

Virgile Lignier harvested late in 2016, from September 26 through October 6, with potential alcohol levels ranging from 12.4% to 13.4% (for the Morey-Saint-Denis Les Chenevery). The vines that were affected by frost were lower in alcohol, Lignier told me, but overall he only lost 10% of his production. In fact, ’16 brought the biggest crop here since 1999.

Lignier has had thermo-regulated tanks since 2014, “so now the fermentations can start very slowly, and within the uncrushed grapes.” The pHs of the ‘16s are generally between 3.4 and 3.5, but with the Chenevery and Clos Saint-Denis more like 3.6. Although the ‘15s actually have slightly lower pHs, Lignier noted that “the balance of 2016 is cooler.” He went on: “The ‘16s will drink young owing to the quality of their tannins but should easily last for 10 or 15 years.” He described the '16s as crunchy, noting that he uses whole-cluster fermentation to gain freshness and complexity, not to change the structure of his wines. The ’16 malos only finished last September and the wines were racked into cuves in October, where they rested for three months before being bottled, with one exception, during the week before my mid-January visit. As in recent vintages, Lignier lightly filtered his ‘16s “for purity,” noting that previously his unfiltered wines “used to go up and down in bottle.”

Lignier considers his ‘16s to be “a mélange of 2002 and the structured side of 2005.” He clearly prefers his ‘16s to his ‘15s “for their Pinot elegance, freshness and subtlety.” He noted that 2015 featured the ripest stems of all (he was a late picker in '15), not to mention grape sugars between 12.8% and 13.8%, and Lignier did three or four pigeages per cuvée, or more than in 2016. Still, in January he felt that he may have extracted too much in 2015. He describes these wines as dominated by red fruits but a little heavy, while the ‘16s are blacker and fresher, which he described as a rare combination. Still, he added, the 2015s are more tannic and they may last longer.