2016 Meursault Clousots

Last year, Patrick Javillier told me that the rainfall between September 14 and 18 (he started harvesting on September 20) cost his wines some acidity and potential alcohol. But when I tasted the finished wines this spring with his daughter Marion, she described the '16s as “more classic than the 2015s, with their terroirs more apparent and with more finesse and elegance." The wines were bottled between last October and January of this year.

Patrick Javillier's white wine production was down 30% to 40% overall in 2016, but yields varied widely according to the parcel. For example, production was very low in Clos du Cromin and Tête de Murgers but Javillier had a normal crop in Tillets. Javillier described his '16 whites as "a bit dilute in acidity and alcoholic degree," due in large part to the rainstorms between September 14 and 18. (He noted that precipitation was lighter and more "regular" on the Côte de Nuits during that period.) Some of the malolactic fermentations finished before the sugars in 2016 and Javillier used SO2 to block some barrels from fermenting too dry, as he does not like the balance of Chardonnays below 1.2 or 1.3 grams per liter. Acidity levels in the grapes were lower than those in 2015 and Javillier told me he did a lot of lees stirring "to replace the lost acidity in the wines." The '16s had been assembled a couple days before my visit at the beginning of June.

Javillier brought in much of his 2015 fruit during the very hot last four days of August, but noted that his harvesters picked grapes only between 6:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and that he immediately chilled the fruit. Potential alcohol levels were mostly between 12.8% and 13.2% and Javillier chaptalized only his Savigny-lès-Beaune. He told me he did more batonnage than usual, “because a lower-acid vintage needs it for complexity—but only if the lees are healthy, like they were in 2015.” Javillier believes that the ‘15s are “to drink young or wait,” and told me that his ‘14s are closed today.