2015 Burgundy Vintage

"There was almost no winter this year," Louis Jadot winemaker Frederic Barnier told Andrew Jefford. A mild, wet winter refilled the water reserves the vines would need later, with a mild December and January and then a February colder than normal outside Saone-et-Loire. An abrupt warm-up from 5 April restarted the vines at a rapid pace, with the first green tips on Chardonnay on 8 April and mid-budbreak by mid-April. May was hot, then briefly cool, then warm again at the end of the month, and on 20 May sleet and hail touched Saint-Aubin, Puligny, Blagny, Corgoloin, Marsannay and the Hautes Cotes, mostly damaging leaves. Flowering began in early June in near-summer weather and was over in a few days; mid-flowering fell on 3 to 4 June in the Cote d'Or, against 1994 to 2014 averages of 6 to 9 June. Barnier put it at 10 days from start to finish, followed by 50 to 60 mm of rain that he called vital for understanding the Cote d'Or vintage. Coulure was sometimes very marked on the earliest-flowering parcels, usually with limited effect. Then came the heat. June, July and August ran 1.8, 2.5 and 1.2 C above normal on average, with the largest gaps in the Cote d'Or, and days above 30 C were 2.5 times the norm there. The first heatwave, from 30 June to 7 July, made the first ten days of July the hottest in 30 years at Chablis, Beaune and Macon. Macon set new records of 39.2 C on 4 July and 39.1 C on 7 August, and Dijon hit 37.5 C on 7 August. July was also the 4th driest at Dijon since 1890, with rain deficits of 75 to 90% across the departments, and from January to September the Cote d'Or ran about 20% below normal rainfall. The Cote de Beaune had caught substantial rain on 12 and 14 to 15 June, and a few inches of June rain and an inch or so in August were critical in the Cote d'Or, though young vines and vines on thin soils were stressed. At Macon, substantial rain only came in early August. Veraison stalled in the heat, got going in early August after small but welcome showers, and ended the week of 17 August. Storms in mid-August brought record winds of 129 km/h at Dijon on 13 August. Powdery mildew risk was high to very high from the start, with a significant impact on the harvest in a minority of parcels; otherwise vineyard health was exceptionally good, with botrytis limited to rare berries at harvest. On the night of 31 August to 1 September a violent hailstorm struck the Yonne, hitting about 600 ha around Irancy, Prehy, Courgis and part of Chablis; losses were estimated at 20 to 80% depending on the parcel. The weeks before harvest were cooler than in 2003 or 2009, which helped preserve acidity. Cremant parcels were picked first, and the still-wine harvest began in the first days of September and ran about fifteen days. Yields came in below average: hot nights in late June and July made berries drop, the heat kept them small, and Andrew Jefford put the crop down around 30 per cent on 2014.

• Mild start to winter, abrupt warm-up from 5 April, mid-flowering on 3 to 4 June in the Cote d'Or
• June to August 1.8, 2.5 and 1.2 C above normal; Macon records of 39.2 C on 4 July and 39.1 C on 7 August
• July the 4th driest at Dijon since 1890; June and August rain carried the Cote d'Or vines
• Chablis hail on 31 August to 1 September; still-wine harvest from the first days of September, yields below average

Picking dates in the Cote d'Or were fairly uniform. Arnaud Mortet in Gevrey-Chambertin picked from 3 September to keep freshness, Clos de Tart from 5 September, and Freddy Mugnier in Chambolle-Musigny began on 8 September and was mostly done before the serious rain of mid-September. Pierre Damoy in Gevrey was the exception in picking after the rains, but the skins were so thick there was no significant dilution. Yields varied: Sebastien Cathiard in Vosne-Romanee had close to 40hl/ha, while Liger-Belair and Henri Gouges averaged 25hl/ha. Andrew Jefford thought hail-hit parts of the Cote de Beaune, such as Beaune, Pommard and Volnay, might be down by 50 per cent. Further south, Decanter called the reds and whites of the Cote Chalonnaise a great success, full of bargains, while the Maconnais, drier and hotter, ripened fast and its wines often verge on excess, generous and open-knit in the style of 2011. In Chablis the summer was benign and the harvest early; the hail diminished the crop in top sites such as Les Clos and Blanchots, but Decanter still called it a very successful vintage.

• Cote de Nuits: Mortet picked from 3 September, Clos de Tart from 5 September, Mugnier from 8 September
• Yields: close to 40hl/ha at Cathiard, an average of 25hl/ha at Liger-Belair and Henri Gouges
• Cote Chalonnaise: a great success in both colours, Decanter judged; Maconnais wines often verge on excess
• Chablis: early harvest and a very successful vintage despite hail in Les Clos and Blanchots

Analytically it was a year of ripeness. The Cote d'Or recorded the highest sugar levels and among the lowest total acidity ever measured, and 100-berry weights for Pinot Noir were among the lowest measured. The grapes had unusually thick skins, laden with ripe tannins and polyphenols, that gave deeply coloured, richly structured wines, and good tartaric acid with low malic acid, so malolactic barely shifted pH. Alcohol ranged from 12.5% to 13.7%. Decanter called the reds "rich, powerful and statuesque but almost always underpinned by juicy acidity," wines for the long haul that will deserve patience and, if they shut down in bottle, demand it. Decanter found the whites more uneven: riper and more food friendly than the chiselled 2014s, with the best concentrated and fresh. Meursault's Anne Morey called 2015 "a classic white Burgundy vintage, with good freshness and ageing potential." The pitfalls were picking too late, or over-extracting a vintage of serious structure, especially in rustic appellations such as Chorey-les-Beaune and Santenay.

• Reds: thick skins, ripe tannins and deep colour; alcohol 12.5% to 13.7%
• Acidity: good tartaric with low malic, and among the lowest total acidity ever measured in the Cote d'Or
• Whites, in Decanter's view: riper and more food friendly than 2014, less consistent than the reds
• Pitfalls: late picking, and over-extraction in appellations such as Chorey-les-Beaune and Santenay

Decanter rated the Cote d'Or reds 5/5, the Cote d'Or whites 3.5/5 and Chablis 4.5/5, and called 2015 the best vintage for red wines since 2005 and 2010. Some vignerons compared it with 2005, though with lower yields and more concentration; others looked to 1990, and Volnay's Michel Lafarge drew parallels with the 1929s he tasted as a young man. Bruno Clair called it "an aristocratic vintage with finesse." At harvest, Jefford found the fruit more concentrated than 2009 thanks to the smaller crop, and noted that a temperate August ruled out comparisons with 2003. For whites, Pierre-Yves Colin in Chassagne-Montrachet said the 2015s in barrel evoked the 1985s, "the best white vintage I ever tasted." Decanter warned that 2015 would be scarce and expensive in the Cote d'Or, with the Cote Chalonnaise the consolation for value.

• Decanter ratings: Cote d'Or red 5/5, Cote d'Or white 3.5/5, Chablis 4.5/5
• Comparisons: 2005 with lower yields, 1990, and Michel Lafarge's 1929s
• Jefford found it more concentrated than 2009 thanks to a smaller crop
• Scarce and expensive in the Cote d'Or, Decanter warned; the Cote Chalonnaise offers bargains