2015 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

Michel Coutoux, who runs his father-in-law Michel Niellon's estate, described 2016 as a "bizarre vintage" and compared the wines to the 2009s. "We had low acidity at the harvest and the wines don't have a lot of tension," he told me. "It's not a classic year." Potential alcohol levels ranged from 11.5% to 12.7% (for the Chevalier-Montrachet) and yields varied widely, mostly depending on where the frost settled. The estate did not make a Chenevottes in 2016, nor is there a Bâtard-Montrachet, as these very old vines were pulled out after the 2015 harvest. The Bâtard parcel will lie fallow for six years before being replanted. The '16s had been sulfited about two weeks before my visit. Some had recently completed their malos but others finished as early as last December.

Coutoux told me he was very surprised by the tension shown by the finished 2015s. "They're not classic wines like the '14s and '12s but they're not extreme either. They have lowish acidity but surprising balance and energy--and not the surmaturité we were expecting." As the wines were clean in 2015, Coutoux filtered them more lightly than usual.

Niellon waited until September 2 to start picking Chardonnay, as the last few days of August were just too hot. “August 28 was the hottest day,” said Michel Coutoux, who runs his father-in-law's domain. “We saw pickers dropping like flies.” After harvesting sparingly on September 2 and 3, Niellon sent a larger team into the vines beginning on the 4th. Grape sugars were generally in the high 12s, with the oldest vines reaching 13%, and most of the wines were chaptalized (the premier and grand crus will go into bottle at around 13.5% alcohol). The Côte de Beaune benefitted from more precipitation than vineyards farther north, Coutoux added, with big rainstorms in May and June and much-needed rain on August 22 particularly constructive for keeping the vines healthy. The always-candid Coutoux describes the Niellon 2015s as “low in acidity, a bit heavy and thick like the 2005s and 2003s. The wines will be agreeable, but they’re not traditional Burgundies. And the 2015 white wines have certainly been overhyped by the press. We probably should have picked ten days earlier.”