I spend 2 days in Burgundy and tasted at a few domaines to get a general feeling about the 2015 vintage .( and also to eat and drink like a king , but that is another story ).
Generally speaking : I love the 2015 reds and I do not like the 2015 whites much . The better reds have great purity of fruit and lot’s of sappy concentration . They will drink well early on and have very long aging potential . I don’t think all wines are great at the same Domaine , you have to be picky . The whites are for early drinking with lack of minerality and freshness and with sometimes tropical aromas . Not my style , it seems a combination of 2003 and 2006 . If you have no white wine in your cellar , then you may consider buying a few , if not : pass.
At Faiveley , the Cote de Nuits were the best : especially Gevrey Cazetiers ( super ) and the Chambolle les Fuees ( only 3 barrels though ) . At Grand cru level , I loved the Mazis and the Corton Clos . Did not like the whites much .
At Bouchard , I was overall underwhelmed . Henri Germain made decent whites that outshine the vintage . Gerard Mugneret made excellent reds , I would go for the Vosne Suchots .
But the super star of my visit was Sylvain Cathiard , who I think made the best wines in his life , especially those from Vosne Romanee ( not NSG ) . The Vosne villages is very pure , the Reignots nice but not great ( vines are too young still ) . Suchots, en Orveaux and Malconsorts briljant , the St Vivant out of this world . Really worth a special effort . Sylvain also told us he now makes magnums of all his wines ( not only St Vivant and Malconsorts ) .
Thank you, Herwig, for the report.
I have been a couple of weeks ago and tasted just by Bruno Clair and Michel Lafarge.
My impression is similar to you, that one has to be picky inside the same domaine. At Clair I was impressed by the Marsannay, which had a wonderful balance and the right level of ripeness. At the top level I was surprised to find the Cazetiers better than the Clos St. Jacques, which so far has never been the case. Interesting that you also found it excellent at Faveley’s. Bonnes Mares and Clos de Beze wonderful as usual, this time the latter had the edge, I think, thanks to its higher elegance.
At the village and 1er cru level things were not quite uniform. I would have to look into my notes to be more specific.
At Lafarge quality levels were more linear. At PSG or Bourgogne level I felt some hard tannins - nothing dramatic but perceivable. Things improve going up to the Village and 1er cru level, with wonderful Greves, Clos des Ducs and Clos de Chenes. His whites (Aligote’ RD and Meursault) were in a ripe style, with tropical fruit notes. Nothing excessive, but for early drinking.
Interesting comment. We tasted 2015 reds at Mugneret-Gibourg, Hudelot-Noellat, Rossignol-Trapet, Dublere, Alex Gambal, Chandon des Briailles, and Arlaud this summer and I found the quality pretty uniform between wines at the same estate (obviously grand crus are going to be better than premier crus, etc., but I did not find huge differences in quality between comparable wines at a given estate).
Very interesting early view on the '15s. Thank you Herwig (and Gilberto and Howard). Since you have all actually tasted the wines, how do you feel overall about the vintage for the reds? Very good if you’re selective? How would you compare to 12/13/14?
The ‘professionals’ are gearing up to hype the heck out of '15. Justified?
After tasting at around seventy domaines, my sense is that this is an excellent red vintage. Much more freshness and terroir definition than many expected. Vignerons are making a variety of analogies: those invoked most frequently were 2005 (but with more mid-palate depth and more refined tannins); 1959 and 1990 (but with more freshness). Michel Lafarge insist no vintage in the last sixty years resembles 2015 and that 1929, which he tasted as a young man not long after is mise, is the best comparison. Of course one should always be selective when buying Burgundy, but I cannot think of a domaine I was expecting to perform well that disappointed. Among the failures of the vintage in red, I found excessive extraction, excessive use of press wine and protracted post-fermentation maceration to be at least as big a problem as over-ripeness, with some wines quite astringent, aggressive or tasting of marc. 2015 is a seriously structured year, so one had to be careful, especially in rustic appellations (e.g. Chassagne rouge, Chorey) which the warm vintage ought to have elevated.
The white side of the ledger is more complicated and opinions are mixed on the ground. Vignerons are considerably less positive about the vintage in general, with some exceptions: Pierre-Yves Collin thinks 2015 may be his best vintage yet, drawing comparisons with 1985; Anne Morey is very up-beat and has made absolutely lovely wines; Olivier Lamy can also feel very content, to say the least. I might venture that the vintage is perhaps a bit more like 2005 than 2006 or 2003, though I’m loath to contradict Herwig. 2005 was a vintage which produced some really great white Burgundies (e.g. Coche-Dury, Pierre Morey, Leflaive) but also a lot of pretty flabby, boring wines which are not very interesting today. In general I found the fruit tones of the 2015 whites more in the register of preserved / baked citrus than overtly tropical, but there were some exceptions of course (e.g. François Carillon). So in short, the whites are much harder to generalize about but there are, as always, some really lovely wines to be found too, even if they do not hit quite the heights of the sometimes extraordinary reds.
Herwig - a friend who has been visiting Burgundy for at least 30 years tasted at Pernot and was told that their wines are a notch up from 2014. And my friend also spoke to Coche and he agreed that 2015 was a better vintage. I have tasted a bottle of the 2015 Pernot clos de la Folatieres that was brought back to LA right after bottling. I think 1985 and 2005 are good comparisons with the richness and density of the 2015’s. Time will tell.
Good to hear about PYCM’s wines. I will be visiting him in a couple weeks during bottling.
I find it pretty hard to generalize on 2014s and 2015s having just tasted a handful of producers that I like well enough to make appointments. When you taste at places like Hudelot-Noellat, Rossignol-Trapet, Mugneret-Gibourg and Dublere, there are going to be a whole lot of great vintages. I will know more about the 2014s generally after going to the grand tasting at the Paulee in NY in March.
That said, I liked what I tasted from both 2014 and 2015 a good bit. The 2015s were richer, the 2014s were a bit fresher, but both tasted really good. I think I liked both vintages more than I did 2012s at the same point. The 2014s might head in the direction of 2010 stylistically, but are not nearly as good. The 2015s are rich, maybe like 1999 but probably not as good. 1985 might be a good comparison, but it has been a long time since I tasted 1985s young.
Thanks guys, very helpful discussion. One of the most challenging things about Burgundy (at least for Californians like me) is the near impossibility of tasting vintages before buying, at least for most of the producers I like. La Paulee is awesome but most of the in-demand wines are long gone by then. So one is put in the position of needing helpful advice like this!
To summarize: sell the house, sell the kids, rent the dog and buy warehouse space to load up on all the '15 red burgs I can find. Check.
The Bâtard from PYCM is pretty extraordinary, but what’s remarkable is how the vintage seems to have elevated the lesser appellations in his portfolio. That’s especially evident with his village Saint Aubins.
Interestingly, and I speculate that’s it’s a function of soil water-holding capacity, I found Bâtard to be not sometimes the equal or even superior of Chevalier in cellars where both were to be sampled. Leflaive’s Chevalier probably had the edge (though rampant premox makes it an academic question), as did Chartron’s, whereas I preferred the Bâtard at PYCM and they were tied chez Jadot.
The Pierre Morey wines are very strong and well worth seeking out, with the Perrières being one of the most exciting whites of the trip (the Bâtard had just been racked and was not presented for tasting). I drank quite a few older bottles from Morey and Morey Blanc during my two months in Burgundy this year and was reminded of just how good those wines are in the fullness of time.
Heading back in January to taste at Ente, B. Moreau and a few other nice addresses which I fully expect to have done very well, but we shall see.
On the subject of 2014 whites, stop at nothing to obtain Roulot’s Perrières. It is just stunning! JM thinks his best vintage along with '07 and '96 and who am I to dissent.
Regarding red 2015s, I’m not sure I see analogies with '99s. Yields in 2015 were considerably lower.
There are some lovely, seriously age-worthy wines to be had for reasonable prices in 2015 too: Tollot-Beaut’s Chorey Pièce de Chapître, Guillemot’s Savigny Serpentières, Deureil-Janthial’s Rullys both red and white (seriously, don’t miss those), red Saint Aubins from Lamy (obviously the whites too but reds are less known), Alain Gras’ Auxey VV rouge… There’s a long, long list. Just don’t tell anyone.
Thanks for the report, William. I guess you are ITB?
Indeed the comparison to 1929 was also mentioned to me in Lafarge’s cellar. Who can contradict him?!
Theme for discussion: a winemaker here in Switzerland I know very well and who has worked in Burgundy made the following observation about the 2015 vintage, as we were harvesting his Pinot Noir grapes. The fruit was beautiful, ripe and healthy - no need to do any sorting - and there seemed to be all reasons to be very happy. He wasn’t because the harvest had to be done early to avoid excessive sugar and lack of acidity. And although the fruit was healthy, looked and tasted beautiful he found it had not developed all the phenolic maturity which gives complexity and interesting flavours to the wines. He said that ideally, you want to harvest when the leaves on the vines start to turn yellow, a sign that the plant has completed its ripening cycle. Around us all vines had all leaves still in full green.
He added that in Burgundy too, in all pictures he had seen, all the vineyards were still completely green at the time of harvest.
Thoughts?
Hi William , thank you for your thoughtful comments . You visited 70 domaines , me 7 … so you will have a better overview .
Regarding Coche : I visit him for decades now . His 2005’s are stunning , so were his 2001’s and that while the vintage overall was not great at all . I have not tasted his 2015’s yet but I would not be surprised if they are great . He only missed 2003 completely ( and I am not a big fan of his correct 2013’s ) but he does excell in difficult vintages .
Jerry , you may be right , I have to go taste more . I had dinner with Allen Meadows who told me he loves 15 red but he is also not a big fan of 2015 whites ( that is a generalization , it does not mean that there are no stunning whites ).
My comments regarding having to be picky : both at Gerard Mugneret and Cathiard : I found the Vosne Romanees to outshine the NSG wines . Maybe it is a pure coincidence . But also at Faiveley : wines were from not so good to outstanding .
So , my conclusion : I have to go back and taste more wine .
Yes yes.
Herwig, Any good student of the game needs to save broad generalizations until more tasting has been done than just 7 estates in 2 days.
Whilst your image of the whites does have many characters that will fit that mold of overripe, tropical, and not so balanced, there are some crazy good whites as well that aren’t far off their 2014 younger siblings either in analytics or essential architecture.
And for reds, not all wines are so succulent and easy. There are some very compact, powerful, tannic creatures out there as well in '15. Water stress is a contributing factor, as Monsieur Kelley alludes to in his Bienvenue vs Chevalier comparison. Nico Groffier made long haul 20-30 year wines, à la the structured 2005s.
Indeed, as the “great vintage” cliché goes, many of the lower parts of the hierarchy are very very impressive, with some Bourgogne and villages wines absolutely shining well above their usual station, as well as some cooler/austere climates that can yield more tannic wines, like Beaune, I found to be terrific (at Marchand-Tawse, both their newer and already established estate wines there).
Fwiw, I tasted at 42 estates over the past two weeks.
Santé à tous
Certainly, when I go to Burgundy my overall goal is to have fun, not to make assessments of vintages as you have to do in your business. I want to taste at favorite producers, not at the average producer. And, when I taste at Mugneret-Gibourg, Hudelot-Noellat and Bernard Moreau, for example, I may get a small handle on vintage styles but I get less so on vintage quality as almost all vintages taste good.
Agree with the point about quality, though not sure I relate to the characterisation of the Beaune AOC as producing austere, tannic wines: perhaps I’ve misunderstood? Perhaps you had a specific climat in mind? I do agree that the vintage produced some absolutely beautiful Beaune rouges!
Yes, I reviewed the vintage in the Côte de Beaune, Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais for Decanter. And I also tasted at a number of my favorite Côte de Nuits addresses for my personal interest.
That observation rings true. As John Gilman observed with characteristic sagacity on Twitter, there is not one 2015 vintage but several, depending on harvest date. It’s clear that a number of growers were anxious to avoid a re-make of 2003 or 2009 and in consequence may have picked a shade prematurely. Harvest date itself is not always a useful indicator however as a variety of other variables, most obviously yield, will impact how mature the fruit was at any given date, so it’s possible to harvest early and ripe or late and unripe.
Much of the Beaune hillside, both for geological (clay rich, cold soil that ripens slower) and “cultural” reasons (many owners there vinifying in an tannin extractive manner, or overcropped), has an historical perception as making firm wines that are not so charming. I don’t believe that i’ve made that up.
Fixin, Pommard, and Savigny could also be considered in a similar light, with historical perceived “rusticity” stemming both from the soils and the culture of those who produce there.
The new generation making wines in Beaune (Domaine des Croix, Marchand Tawse, Maxime Cheurlin, Nico Rossignol etc) will surely reshape this perception. The best of the old guard (Lafarge, Drouhin) have always made stunning wines there, but even they (Lafarge at least, I don’t taste regularly at Drouhin) are producing finer wines than they did a decade ago.
As to vintage generalizations, yup, you (and John) are onto it: there is a spectrum of personality to the '15s in both red and white, with various factors determining the greater successes from the lesser. It is that way every year, quite honestly. But often, consumers want straight line oversimplified little boxes to put things into, as all of those details gets complicated.
I always am reminded of the old adage: no vintage is as good or as bad as hyped.
Details details details…
