2015 Chambertin Grand Cru

Like a number of his colleagues, and especially those who were relatively lucky vis-à-vis the frost, Olivier Bernstein is enamored of the relatively delicacy of the 2016 reds, which he feels may be as interesting as the 2015s “but for different reasons.” He explained: “The 2016s show the magic of Burgundy in their subtlety and finesse, while the ripeness of 2015 can be found in other regions around the world. Two thousand sixteen was definitely a cooler style of vintage, because the summer only started in mid-July." As is his normal practice, Bernstein harvested early in ’16 (beginning on September 23), with grape sugars around 12.2%, then chaptalized moderately. “With our very old vines we get ripeness early. We like to retain acidity because we don’t want to have to add it, but we’re willing to add sugar.”

Among Bernstein’s sites, only his Chambertin and part of his Gevrey villages were significantly affected by the late-April frost, and his total production (about 24,000 bottles) will be very close to that of 2015. Bernstein racked his wines for the first time after the malos, which finished between March and June, the last SO2 addition prior to my November tasting was done before the 2017 harvest. Incidentally, Bernstein owns the vines that make his Gevrey-Chambertin Les Champeaux and Mazis-Chambertin and plans to add a couple new properties to his portfolio as he moves increasingly in the direction of domain bottling.

I was knocked out by the aromatic complexity and perfume of Bernstein’s 2016, but the more voluminous ‘15s, which were bottled in April of '17 with up to 13.4% alcohol including a bit of chaptalization, are at least as impressive. For his part, Bernstein believes that some of the '15s are going through a slightly awkward stage, and that his '14s are currently tasting better.

Olivier Bernstein originally thought the 2015 growing season was too hot to make great, ageworthy wines. “But after the July malos, I was surprised to see an ideal combination of beautiful ripeness and exceptional balance," he told me in November.” After harvesting between September 6 and 10, Bernstein vinified with 80% whole clusters, higher than his normal 50%. He has cut back on his extraction since 2013 vinification—“and that’s why 2015 was an ideal year for me, although I didn’t know it at the time” [i.e., extraction was almost too easy in 2015]. He harvested with potential alcohol around 13%, carried out a cold soak lasting five to seven days, then chaptalized a bit in order to prolong the fermentations (his wines digested their last five or six grams of sugar in barrel), doing no pigeages and just a bit of remontage.

Bernstein ages all of his wines in 100% new oak except for his Gevrey-Chambertin, which gets 70%. He maintains that the new oak "brings structure and bones, and a positive austerity" to his wines. His barrel supplier since the outset has been Stéphane Chassin, but Bernstein now buys and dries his own wood. The 2015s were racked in July, following the malolactic fermentations, but Bernstein retained the lees. At the time of my mid-November visit, he planned to rack the wines again in two or three months and bottle at the end of March.