2016 Chablis Butteaux Vieilles Vignes 1er Cru
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Guillaume Gicqueau-Michel described 2016 as a nightmare vintage. “The good news is that the wines are good; the bad news is that there’s no wine,” he told me. This estate made just half a crop in 2016, but quantities were off more like 70% in their village and Petit Chablis holdings (the grand crus were down about 30%). Gicqueau-Michel describes the young 2016s as “fleshy and balanced,” despite low acidity levels of 3.2 to 3.8 grams per liter. “As with the 2015s, you don’t feel the lack of acidity in the 2016s,” he went on. “The ‘16s are a bit more linear and the ‘15s a bit richer; there’s more salinity in 2015 and more tension in 2016.” The estate started harvesting on September 27 with potential alcohols at 12.2% or 12.3% and picked quickly; some wines were lightly chaptalized. All of the 2016s were in tanks at the time of my early June visit.
Incidentally, Gicqueau-Michel told me that the 2015s had sugars similar to the 2016s “before and after chaptalization.” He added that vintages 2014, 2013 and 2012 were all higher in potential alcohol than the two most recent years and required less chaptalization. (He's telling his customers to drink their 2013s now, and then the 2015s.) The 2015 grand crus had been bottled about three weeks before my visit.