From what i’ve seen and heard, there is some very promising, very high quality fruit being harvested, which is great news in light of the spring frosts and mildew challenges of the early season. When Frédéric Lafarge says that there is exceptionally good quality, I take it to heart.
For those who are just starting now, the forecast could not be any better. Sunny highs in the low 70s, cool nights in the low 50s through October 5th, no rain or storms anywhere on the horizon.
So much of the qualitative story depends on the month leading up to harvest, and this has been a very very good month…
I am happy for my vigneron friends and their roller coaster ride 2016 vintage! I am looking forward to tasting, toasting, and talking together in a few weeks…
When I was there 2.5 weeks ago the growers said that the ripeness is rather behind normal - and very uneven, but with another 2-3 weeks of good weather it could be good quality.
(seems to happen)
Quantity will be very low, in some parcels close to zero due to the frost of late April.
Harvest was expected to start between 26th Sept (today) and 1st week of Oct. - and a lot of sorting will be necessary due to uneven stages of ripeness …
Grape skins seemed to be rather thick (if not attacked by rot) and stems not very ripe - so one has to watch vinification not to extract too much astringent tannins …
It has literally been almost four-five straight of weeks moderate sunshine (mid to low 80s in early Sept, lowering to the 70s, now low 70s ), with just a bit of much needed overnight moisture a week or so ago.
From the looks of the pictures, fruit looks pretty healthy. An oversimplification but perhaps still useful, I generally think of the month + leading up to and through harvest determining quality, the earlier season moreso dictates yields.
Extracting some bullet points/stats from the report:
-Natural sugars in Meursault of 11.5%-12.7% at Domaine Michelot.
-regular yields chez Lafarge of Volnay of 37-38hl/ha in non frost affected parcels.
-in sectors particularly bit by frost, painfully small yields around 3-10hl/ha
-it seems that acidity is a bit higher than in '15 in whites, with not quite as much sugar as '15.
A quote from David Croix:
“Je suis assez surpris de l’état sanitaire dans l’ensemble d’ailleurs. Les raisins sont superbes cela me rappelle ce que l’on a pu voir en 2015, 2009, il y de superbes raisins. Le problème c’est qu’il n’y en a pas, c’est dommage.”
“I am pretty surprised at the overall sanitary state. The grapes are superb, makes me think of what we saw in '15, and '09. There are superb grapes. The problem is that there aren’t any grapes, it’s too bad…”
A quote from Frédéric Lafarge;
“« On est sur un grand millésime, mais un millésime de vigneron, où on est récompensé de l’implication du travail de tout le monde dans les vignes parce que c’était vraiment très compliqué à gérer dans les vignes entre le gel et le mildiou. La dégustation des raisins est top. Ensuite les rapports sucres/acides, le faible taux d’acide malique, il y a tout ! Il y a un très bel équilibre, vraiment remarquable. Quand on goûte les jus, il y a une pureté du fruit avec une belle tension minérale. Déjà dans les jus on sent de manière très pure la finesse de chaque terroir cette année ».”
“We are dealing with a great vintage, but a vintage of the vigneron, where one is compensated by the impact of everyone’s work in the vines because it was really complicated to manage between the frost and the mildew. The taste of the grapes is top (fantastic). Then the balance of sugar/acidity, the low level of malic acid, everything is there! There is a purity of fruit with a beautiful mineral tension. One already senses in the juice in a very pure manner the finesse of each terroir this year.”
Every year is its own ride…
I am happy for all of the growers that after such a bitter start, the finish is shaping up so well.
SANTÉ AUX VIGNERONS!!
Robert, having seen the vineyards in June it’d be great if there is some semblance of a harvest for 2016 but I’m not getting my hopes too high … Plus pricing of what is for sale must be an issue … I have a friend in Burgundy who bought a mature Meursault vineyard three years ago who has never got any fruit from it and 2016 will not break his run.
From what I’ve heard when I was down there from Sept 20-22, the vintage is difficult and exceedingly challenging. Though, at Lambrays, Thierry Brouin seemed pretty optimistic. It was my first time in Beaune so I’m probably not great at reading between the lines when talking to winemakers about vintage assessments.
Robert, I don’t know about insurance. When I heard that I didn’t ask any further …
Juyuan, I stayed next to Lambrays in June. I’m not sure if it was a frost shadow or what, but Lambrays vines and fruit looked pretty good, while others just down the road, like Clos de la Roche were much worse affected …
Insuring a vineyard is not easy. I’ve brought this up to some growers in Meursault in the last years and they can get some compensation (but not the easy way) and they get compensated the price of grapes. This means Perrieres or Bourgogne blanc are compensated at the same price, which makes it really hard for many vingerons!
After my November tour, I hear heterogeneous but VERY good things among the vintages successes. Many folks say that their 2016s are even better than the '15s.
Thanks for the insight Robert. So 2013 < 2014 < 2015 < 2016 . . . wow, just keeps getting better and better. Do you think this applies to just the top producers or more across the board?
I think that there is an ever rising tide of passionate players, with more know how and commitment than ever. A golden age, I would say, in the entire world of fine wine.
I wouldn’t use the < > mathematics when thinking of Burgundy vintages.
The vintages are different, and their individual styles will likely appeal to different palates.
Not binary. 0 1 0 1 0 1.
The variety and diversity of Nature.
That monotonic sequence is interesting, but what about consistency? My sense is, between what I’ve tasted and read it maybe goes in the oppositite direction?
Notwithstanding generally good comments on 2015, of the whites I’ve already tasted one very disappointing Chablis (Brocard Montee de Tonnerre). And it sounds like 2016 is potentially v good but variable.
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