2015 Gevrey-Chambertin Village

Although Sylvie Esmonin's estate-wide yield in 2016 was just 27 hectoliters per hectare, production ranged widely according to the vagaries of the frost, with the heaviest losses in her Bourgogne and Côte de Nuits-Villages holdings. Her Clos Saint-Jacques yielded 27 hectoliters per hectare, while her village Gevrey-Chambertin vines produced a tad more. Esmonin harvested from September 24 through 29, doing a maximum of half a degree of chaptalization. “The challenge in 2016 was to retain the leaves despite the mildew,” she told me, adding that she did 12 treatments from April through June. “Some of the grapes dried out and fell but this had no influence on the rest of the fruit, and mildew does not block maturity like oidium does.” Happily, the grapes were healthy at harvest-time, thanks to very good weather in July, August and September, and Esmonin made her normal use of whole-cluster vinification.

Esmonin compares 2016 to 2010 in texture, finesse and length. She expressed the opinion that 2016 and 2015 “are both great vintages but very different, with 2016 more a vintage of terroir." She went on "The 2016s have a bit less acidity than the ‘15s, and the ‘15s are more opulent and expressive. They’re also exuberant and already very digestible. They resist oxidation very well and they should age very well. I’m not sure they will ever close up in bottle. With the 2016s, we’ll need to wait.” The ‘16s had been moved into cuves and sulfited before the ’17s went into barrel in mid-October, as is the normal practice at this address.

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."