2015 Chablis Valmur Grand Cru

Samuel Billaud told me lost about 50% of his crop, but more like 30% to 40% in his crus, in 2016, which he described as “a very difficult year.” To make up part of the shortfall, he bought some Bourgogne blanc juice from Yonne and Mâcon and blended them to make an entry-level bottling. Billaud began harvesting on September 27 and picked quickly in seven days as the botrytis was becoming more apparent. He told me that potential alcohol levels ranged from 12% to 12.7% and that he only chaptalized part of the village wine.

Billaud noted that the growing season of ’16 was less sunny than that of 2015, explaining that 2016 shows “a colder minerality—more like 2014 and 2012." In his very cold cellar, his grand crus were still finishing their malos so I will have to wait until next year to taste these wines. (For his part, Billaud is happy about the late malos as he finds more complexity in Chablis when the malos do not take place before the summer after the harvest, although this is rare in the region.) And I must note that I tasted the tank portion of each premier cru; 10% to 20% of each of these wines was still in barrel and not yet through malolactic fermentation. The wines I tasted had been racked about six weeks before my visit.

Billaud told me that in 2015 it was a simple matter to avoid picking hailed-on grapes because the leaves had been destroyed and it was easy to see the fruit. Potential alcohol levels had reached 12.5% by the middle of the harvest, but were as high as 13% at the end. He started harvesting on September 2, just after the hailstorm, and “had to pick quickly.” He added that some villages were carrying heavy crop loads, requiring him to wait for more ripeness, and that’s why it took until September 11 to finish.

Incidentally, Billaud is now bottling all but his grand crus with Diam corks.