2015 Chambolle-Musigny Village

Romain Taupenot started harvesting on September 8, bringing in his last parcel on the 14th. “The rocky grand cru parcels on shallow clay soil were the most stressed by drought,” he told me. But potential alcohol levels were quite high, ranging from 12.8% to almost 14%, with most of his fruit around 13.5%. He delayed spraying for powdery mildew during the hottest stretch in early July, taking a risk in order to prevent the sun from burning the leaves coated with the sulfur spray. “My main fear early on was about the level of acidity, but the wines have great aging potential,” he noted.

Taupenot did punchdowns during the cold soak, which lasted for seven to nine days at 8 degrees C., then once a day until the middle of the fermentation. He cut back on the number of pumpovers because the color came very easily. “The polyphenols were harder to extract in 2016, even if the seeds were riper than in ‘15,” he explained. Taupenot always destems his fruit, noting that he “shares the philosophy of Henri Jayer on this subject.” He added that 2005 was the only year when the entire clusters were ripe. That year featured even more ideal conditions than 2015, he told me, as temperatures were consistently in the 80s and there was no hydric stress.

Incidentally, yields here for the premier crus were around 40 hectoliters per hectare, which Taupenot says may explain why he was able to harvest a bit later yet maintain fresh, high-pitched aromas. And with a lot of millerandange, he went on, the grapes released sugar and acidity at the end of the fermentations. “The pHs, now between 3.45 and 3.65 for the grand crus, are pretty typical for us.” The malolactic fermentations mostly finished last spring and the wines had been racked into tanks about five weeks before my December visit.