2015 Côte de Nuits-Villages

Sylvie Esmonin told me that at the time of the 2015 harvest, she was "afraid of making monsters, making caricatures with too much tannins." Potential alcohol levels were 13% or slightly higher, she added, and the thick-skinned grapes contained very little juice. Yields were just 20 to 25 hectoliters per hectare, according to Esmonin, who harvested between September 5 and 9 and vinified at relatively cool temperature with a high percentage of whole clusters. The wines had been assembled in cuves about two weeks bfore my visit. Esmonin described her '15s as "a mix of 2010 and 2005: 2010 for their finesse and sap and 2005 for power, austerity and tannic structure."