I know this is a little early to start this topic but the it seems this will be an excellent vintage. I’m slowly winding down my buying between retirement and cellar being pretty full. This looks to be my last big purchase except for backfilling and buying from favorite producers. When will most start being released?
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I thought the same thing when I looked at the vintage charts, but I went to the La Fete Philipponnat dinner in November and Charles told me that '15 was a difficult vintage and you really had to pick at the right time. He also said he thinks '12 was one the best vintages in Champagne ever and '18/'19/'20 are going to be amazing, akin to the '88/'89/'90 but better with '19 being the best. You may have to keep buying.
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One viewpoint, but Antonio Galloni also has said that 2015 was a weaker vintage; he picked up lots of green notes, which he doesn’t seem to like in champagne. Nonetheless, I’m sure many fine bottlings were produced; you just need to be selective.
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Terry Theise on the 2015 vintage in Champagne:
"There’s a new curiosity we need to talk about, and this one is extremely obscure. For some odd reason, the NV wines that include vintage-2015 for the first time, are showing a curious herbal flavor. Grassy. It is not underripeness (not green like 2010 could be) and it is not vegetal (like the genuinely obnoxious ‘11s) and it was not present in the Vins Clairs. No one could explain this, and I wonder whether it’s explicable at all, at least at this point. Later maybe, if it becomes a “thing,” a topic-of-discussion, people will start asking where on earth does that flavor come from in such a ripe year? For now—denial.
But I must emphasize this is not an annoying element and for some palates may even be pleasing. I happen to be rather put off by it, because it’s not a “Champagne” flavor. (You could see it in bubbly Grüner Veltliner.) It’s a little wild and very much fresh-cut-herbs or things you’d make a tisane from."
And then one year later…
"And only the most honest and candid among them will talk about the grassy taste of many 2015s. Kudos to Mr. Galloni, who was the only writer I’m aware of to go public with this matter. And kudos to Peter Liem, who (not atypically!) has presented the most plausible theory to explain it. Liem says that the Champenoise have always picked grapes based on potential alcohol, i.e., sugar-ripeness, and that for most of them it was all they needed to know. But in the modern climate we reach that ripeness earlier, in many cases before we have physiological ripeness, so that the sugars may be OK but the grapes still taste green.
This prompts a whole slew of questions. One, none of us remember tasting green flavors in the Vins Claires we saw from 2015. Why not? And then, if Liem’s theory is correct (as I think it could very well be) then what’s to be done about it? Growers can pick later but how will they then keep their Champagnes at or below 12.5% alc if they pick with higher sugars? The only way would be to adjust tirage so there’s less pressure in the bottle, but even then there’s only so far down one can go. This perplexing issue also exposes a flaw in many Champenois’ logic, the notion that riper grapes (with one assumes lower acidity) will lower the need for dosage. This isn’t true, and it arises from the aforementioned misunderstanding of the actual role dosage plays. Lower-acid Champagnes with inadequate dosage will still taste boorish and nasty.
Meanwhile, there’s still a few NVs based on 2015, and while these are nowhere near as objectionable as the cauliflower-water vegetality afflicting so many 2011s, you still need to know that the wines are not typical. In essence I don’t mind a little grassiness in wines if I buy them because of that flavor, but it doesn’t belong in Champagne and I was mightily relieved to see it give way to the far better NVs from a 2016-base."
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Then this means the greenness should be the same as in 2010 after all - pyrazines from grapes that have not yet attained physiological ripeness.
By allowing replanting the vineyards with the permitted but not “noble” varieties (Arbanne, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris) - ie. varieties that have not been favored in the past as they are varieties that have struggled to ripen in Champagne’s rather extreme climate. Now, when Chardonnay and Pinot Noir ripen way too early and attain too high levels of potential alcohol, it might help if growers could start focusing on these varieties that normally don’t reach that high levels of potential alcohol and ripen later in the season, retaining their acidity better, making it possible to harvest them on later dates when the grapes have reached required physical ripeness.
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Green notes are a hard pass for me. Gonna go big on 18 which is a birth year for us.
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2015 is all over the place, in a blend with 13,14 and 15 fantastic. 19 I love this vintage, almost every release from our grower producers is amazing and the best is still to come.
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@Steve_L_Gellman, I’m in the same situation as you. I’ve cut way back on my buying, picking out pearls here and there of selected growers, houses and vintages. I’m saving my last big purchases for the 2019’s, although that can always change as early impressions of a vintage don’t always endure.
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I’m mostly concentrating on roses
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I have opened and enjoyed the following, and would/have reloaded them. So, FWIW, I don’t see anything of concern with 2015 but WTF do I know. I just buy and drink it, I’m not a wine critic.
2015 LF Les Empreintes
2015 Vilmart Grand Cellier d’Or
2015 Larmandier-Bernier Terre de Vertus
2015 Marie Courtin Presence and Efflorescence
2015 Marguet Ambonnay and Les Crayeres
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2015 Marie Courtin Champagne Efflorescence Extra Brut - France, Champagne (11/21/2022)
Opened yesterday. Just an ounce left for today's note. June 2021 disgorgement, 100% Pinot Noir done in old wood. No dosage, farmed bio. This bottle is consistent with the previous ones, both in texture and fruit. For texture, there is a glossy feel to the wine, what I almost could call oily but that would convey the wrong perception. Think of the wine as glossy, round, with a polish to all of it. For the fruit, really hard to call this wine, as there are aspects that might fool me for Chard, such as the glossy apple and even what seems like a licorice note. Then, a mix of what seems like a pineapple (meaning the citrus) along with a red fruit, like a raspberry. This bottle has a unique edge to it and yet I don't see any reason why you can't enjoy it now. This is my final 15 Eff, gonna start looking for the 16. -
2015 Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Ambonnay - France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru (11/7/2022)
I just got this bottle a few weeks ago but decided to let it rip as I have not done much tasting of the 15 Marguet range. This is 53 Chard / 47 Pinot Noir, disgorged September 2020 (i think, or it's 2021 but I ripped the back label), no dosage. The smoky aromatic is pretty well established here, even being open since last night, I can still sense it in today's pour as I work through the final few ounces. Pretty soft, but fresh and quite fruit dominant. Lots of pear, pineapple, some green apple, orange and a flash of cranberry or dried cherry from the Pinot Noir. This is rich yet elegant, as the middle weight of the wine gently hits my palate. Finishes with a gentle push of acidity, the juicy orange flesh capturing the finish, along with some cardamom (that I also found yesterday). More delicious then complex, but a wine that I can just keep pouring and finishing...kind of addicting in that way. -
2015 Laherte Frères Champagne Les Empreintes - France, Champagne (10/22/2022)
Pretty with a richness of grapefruit, green apple and mango. Very interesting showing for this wine, more approachable and ready then the 2014 which is a gorgeous wine, one of my best wines of 2022 also. -
2015 Larmandier-Bernier Champagne Premier Cru Terre de Vertus - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru (7/1/2022)
Tasting w/ The Gang @ Counselor Seiber's Pad (Orange County, CA): Like the bottle from this past weekend, same April 2021 disgorgement. However, this was blinded on me and I can now start to get the sense of the L-B signature here, which is the aromatic of a lightly toasty note and some clove, both I would infer from the elevage. Green apple, slate, lemon pith, tangerine. And a similar inflection of banana, which is the same quality I got from the L-B 2019 base Latitude I had last month at the winery. If it wasn't hot as piss right now in the US (and likely for the next few months), I would drag more of this from Florida and ship it West to add to what I have in inventory. A terrific cuvee, one I enjoy a lot. -
2015 Marie Courtin Champagne Presence - France, Champagne (6/26/2022)
Paul's Annual Champagne Tasting: January 2019 disgorgement. This pours a deeper yellow in color but don't read this as being gold--it's not oxidizing nor going that direction. This was drinking for me in a great spot. There is texture here, plus concentration, which is the feature I really liked. Lemon, melon and a toasty note that infused the wine. Excellent. -
2015 Laherte Frères Champagne Les Empreintes - France, Champagne (3/6/2022)
Disgorged December 2020, 50/50 Pinot and Chard with 4 grams of dosage. Doing the math, this got about 4.5 years on the lees. Damn, this is really good, the Chardonnay (from the plot called Les Chemins d'Epernay) and the Pinot Noir (from the plot called Maison Rouges). The Chardonnay vines are older, planted in 1957, whereas the Pinot Noir was planted in 1983. The nose smells chalky, what I sometimes call pounded rock--it has that chalky signature joined by a white floral note. The core of the wine is really driven by a mix of tangerine and lime, a bright citrusy core that I could even say is like a fresh squeezed ripe tangerine with a kick of lime cutting through it. Where the Pinot Noir comes through is in the structure of the wine, as there is a good spine here, like a cranberry/raspberry red fruit that tucks it all in. There is such a wealth of flavor here, with the necessary structure and acid to make a complete wine. In sum, what this wine shows for me is the deft skill of Aurélien Laherte in getting all of this great flavor to come through. And, in part this reminded initially as what you might find in Vilmart Grand Cellier d'Or, with the tangerine, lime and chalk, but where this wine diverges from that one is the stronger imprint of red fruit character. Straight up pure and delicious, and this was a test drive of the 2015 to see if I wanted to source more. I do! -
2015 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grand Cellier d'Or - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru (10/15/2021)
Disgorged June 2019. As typical for GCdO, 80% Chard and 20% Pinot Noir, with 7 grams of dosage. We poured this blind next to the 2014 (also blind), which created a cool comparison. There is power in the 2015, the same contraction of the 2014 too, but the acidity and fruit in the 2015 seems more overt, youthful, still searching for some definition (which the 2014 already shows). Pineapple, orange, limey acidity. The 2014, at least for this moment, is superior to the 2015, so we'll have to see how age tames some of the youth.
Posted from CellarTracker
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If you could pick one vintage between 2013 & 2019 to load up with, what would you choose?
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I’d say 2019. If you included 2012, I’d call it close, but still would wait for 2019. My preference, which is more information than you requested, would be '19>'12>'13 & '18
If you’re looking strictly in the Côte des Blancs, 2013 gets a little boost.
Of course, you can find exceptional wines in all vintages these days, but if I’m saving for one, it’s 2019.
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Warren,
I haven’t seen much in the way of 2019 on the market yet. Can you give me some available 2019’s that you have tried and where they can be purchased. Would love to try 3 or 4 to get an idea about the vintage.
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2015 is an interesting vintage and one that I feel is very unique. It is above average in my book, but the wines do sometimes show an herbal or savory element and some do not like this. This isn’t a lack of ripeness/pyrazine greenness, but something different. I don’t recall there being widespread issues with mistimed or early picking in 2015 that resulted in grapes that were not phenolically ripe. There are many opinions on where what I call an herbal/savory note in some 2015s come from and I believe it is due to many of the vines shutting down in the summer.
There was a big heat wave and a lack of water during the start of summer; July and early August saw many of the vines essentially shut down for multiple weeks due to lack of water. Normally, the chalk in Champagne has enough water held in it to continue to supply the vines during intense heat waves, but that wasn’t the case in 2015 - even in the best sites. The sap stopped moving in the vines which meant that the normal flow of nutrients to grapes during a key growth period did not take place. My belief is that this stop in the normal growth process robbed the grapes of certain nutrients and changed the end result.
The grapes still ripened and the end result showed good potential, but there was always a strange or different brightness to the wines as vins clairs. The wines were good and a bit showy, but also lacking the expected structure and sometimes a bit savory or slightly tropical. A number of winemakers commented to me at the time that they were happy with what 2015 gave them, but that the wines showed the signs of being something different and not the normal complete package. I find 2015 to be extremely interesting as a vintage with aromas and flavors that are often unique. This uniqueness does appear to blend well, but some may be put off by its flavors and aromas as a straight vintage wine.
My advice would be to buy and taste in 2015 as it is… different. Not green, not under ripe, just different and I embrace it for that. I like it more than 2014, 2016, and 2017, but it isn’t at the level of 2012, 2013, and 2018-2020.
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Only one sample but my '15 Base Charles Heidsieck Brut Rose was almost undrinkable.
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Brad, thank you for bringing in the deep dive again for us. I appreciate your knowledge and detail when you post it.
FWIW, in comparing 2014 and 2015, I have found the 15s more accessible, and the 14s with the structure. I think of Vilmart and Marie Courtin as examples. The 15s from both, more round and more approachable whereas the 14s more tense, more spine and coil. I just finished a glass of the 14 MC Efflorescence a few mins ago–it has that vintage structure and minerality that the same wine in 15 does not show nor possess. Same with Laherte Freres Empreintes 14 vs 15.
Thinking about the other vintages on either side of these two, man, that is a longer discussion for sure.
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Frank,
Great description of the two years. 2014 is showing more classical in style - structure, length, and minerality with fruit slowly growing in the background; for me, these wines need time to hit their peak. 2015 is bright, open, tasty, and drinking great right now. We will have to see how they age, but they show a bright personality right now and most are not classical in style at all. There is a time and place for each and I appreciate that a wine from each year gets to tell its own climate story. If every year was the same, it would be boring.
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Frank,
Definitely in your camp re: 2015 Champagne. I’ve had some of those wines and they were darn good. And a bunch of 2014 which were also delicious (Vilmart). At my age I care about today. Have enough that what it will be in twenty years is not an issue.
This was my gut feeling as well, remembering 2015 was a very warm and rather dry vintage.
However, in other regions that usually leads to wines that can be very ripe, yet retain some pyrazines as they haven’t had enough time to be broken down (as the ripening process was halted). I wonder why this wouldn’t be the case with Champagne?
After all, these pyrazines can express themselves very differently in a different medium. In a barely ripe wine from a cool vintage, they can feel quite grassy and aggressively green as the other flavors are very “unripe” too, the acidity is high and pH low. However, in a higher-pH wine with very ripe, borderline tropical fruit, the pyrazines can lend a noticeably different kind of note - even if the culprit was the exact same compound!
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Otto,
You could very well be right. I don’t know if anyone knows the exact answer and there are various theories. The only take on 2015 that I completely disagree with is that the 2015 vintage shows classic, green, pyrazine, under ripe notes. Most folks I talked to, didn’t feel the grapes at harvest were under ripe in any way and achieved phenolic maturity, but rather were missing something - kind of like a person who may be missing something and is perfectly fine, but may need to function or do things different than most.
The one comment that sticks out to me came from Anselme Selosse in late 2015/early 2016. After tasting the vins clairs with him a couple times, he said with some disbelief that the wines tasted quite nice, maybe too high in quality for the struggles of the vintage and he believed that something would eventually come out in some wines that was different or possibly negative. Anselme felt that it didn’t make sense for the vines to be stressed so much, have a duration of being shut down with little to no sap movement, and still put out top level, complete wines.
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