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News
2015 began as in previous years with a non-existent winter. A mild January and humid February, both with very short days and below-zero temperatures. We had a dry and warm spring with such high temperatures that flowering started a month earlier than usual. We saw a very quick blossoming of the vines at the end of May, which added to the strain of waiting for the now-dreaded month of June. But this year it was drought that hit the vineyards, and after such an early flowering the grapes were unable to flourish normally - throughout Burgundy losses amounted to 30% of the harvest. July and August were typical summer months. I will remember 2015 with pleasure: not a single devastating storm. You can imagine the collective relief of the Burgundian winemakers! Working in the vines was a joy, there were no diseases, nothing stressful, and the vinification was a delight. It was a year that put the smile on winemakers’ faces.
We began by harvesting the Chardonnay on 26 August. The weather was very hot so we picked the grapes between 6AM and 1PM. I decided to harvest the whites early to maintain the acidity levels and ensure the resulting freshness and vivacity for a sunny vintage. The wines have a citrus note, lemon and tangerine peel followed by a touch of cream and a slightly salty finish.
We harvested the Pinot Noir on 10th September. Nowadays the climatic conditions mean a twofold harvest when both varieties are concerned. The whites are harvested early to maintain the acidity levels, and the reds are done a fortnight later to let the tannins ripen. Our 2015 vintage reds are superb, with deep colour, black fruit aromas and persistent but delicate tannins.
The only downside to this vintage are the yields, especially in Volnay and Pommard, where we harvested only between 7 and 15 hectolitres per hectare.
Unfortunately, the 2016 vintage will confirm this trend. I will tell you all about it next year.
Wine Description
The Story
Above all else, the domain strives to capture the quality and diversity of its vineyards. The soil of Burgundy produces exceptionally fine, pure wines. It is essential to reveal the delicate balance of minerals, clays, limestones and other elements, which makes each wine so unique.
Henri is the fifth generation of the branch of the Boillot family. His son Guillaume joined the domaine few years ago. In 2005 Henri Boillot bought out the shares of his brother and sister and put his own name to his father Jean’s domaine. The Domaine is now located in Meursault.
Today, Domaine Henri Boillot consists of 15 hectares split between white (including 3,92 hectares of Puligny Montrachet Clos de la Mouchère, which is a Monopole and a small enclave in Puligny “Les Perrières”, adjoining Puligny Clavoillon) and red (a number of 1er Crus in Savigny, Beaune, and Volnay). In the vineyard Henri Boillot uses “lutte raisonnée” meaning without using chemicals on the soil.
White grapes are whole-bunch pressed, vinified without any batonage (French term for stirring the lees during the aging and maturation of wine).
The elevage is in 350L barrels (size used since 1996 at the domaine), balance between new barrels and one year old barrels (never more).
In the winery, reds are destalked then cooled down at 8°C for 12 days as part of a four week vatting time. Once the temperature is allowed to rise so that fermentation begins, the must may well be punched down but they avoid pumping over. After fermentation the wine goes to barrel, either new or one year old barrel. No racking, fining or filtering.
The wines are bottled after 18 months in barrel and are generally described as pure, rich, accurate, powerful and brilliant.
Wine Information
Henri Boillot continues to make stunning wines from his négociant operation and he has arguably become the finest pure négoce specializing in white burgundy today; yes there are other very fine négociants but the huge majority of them are really domaines hidden inside a "Maison" facade that buy in fruit or must to supplement their proprietary wines,
Allen Meadows
Vintage 2015
The 2015 Harvest by Clive Coates MW
The bad news is Chablis. In the early hours of Tuesday 1st September a severe storm hit the Chablis area. From Irancy up to the grands crus of Blanchots and Les Clos a swathe of hail – some hailstones as large as golf balls – has affected some 100 hectares of the vineyard. In all 97 mm of rain fell in six hours. The weather then cleared, threatening rot, and most growers rushed out to harvest before it was too late. Thankfully most of the grands crus have reverted to picking by hand, so a preliminary triage could be accomplished before the fruit arrived at the winery.
Elsewhere Burgundy has been spared. It did not rain. A token amount of Chardonnay harvesting began in the week of August 31th, and by the following Monday the harvest was fully under way. The weather then cooled, not only conserving the acidities, but making life more pleasant for the pickers. I can attest from my experience with the 1964 crop over forty years ago that it is not much fun picking grapes in unrelenting heat. The first week – that is the week of September 7th – the weather was fine. Later in September the weather cooled a little. It stayed dry until the weekend of 12th September, when the first serious rain for two months or more fell in the Côte d'Or and further south. For two or three days during that week the picking was interrupted. By Saturday 19th September the harvest was all but over except for a few vineyards in the Hautes Côtes.
All the way from the Côte d'Or down to the Mâconnais the fruit was in splendid condition. Michel Lafarge reported that he has rarely seen such magnificent grapes, and his comments have been echoed by others. Aromas in the cellars are intoxicating. A further bonus is that after several years of short crops the 2015 harvest is reasonably abundant. For this much thanks.
Prices, however seem destined to be high; perhaps the highest in real terms that they have ever been. The Hospices auction will give us an indication of this. But when we read that Henri Jayer's Vosne-Romanée, Cros Parentoux, 1996 now fetches £90000 a case one can hardly expect comparable wines of the 2015 vintage to sell for peanuts.
September 1st 2015
The splendid weather in July has been followed by an August, which, if not quite so continuously hot and sunny, has been for the most part equally good, particularly towards the end of the month.
And it has continued dry. There have been, thankfully, no storms, no hail, and no threat of rot. Indeed the vines are in magnificent condition. The advance weather forecast for September tells us that it will cool over the first ten or so days, but then warm up again. The harvest will start during the next week or so, and all indications are that it will be both plentiful and successful. Just what Burgundy needs. It's all smiles here!
August 1st 2015
The weather has been splendid for a the whole of the month of July: day after day of warm, sometimes very hot temperatures, and almost a complete absence of rain. While this has made the lawns look rather dispiritingly brown and parched, the vines, with their deep root systems, have suffered no drought stress, and those people with swimming pools have been able to indulge in their fortune. For once, while there have been a couple of thunderstorms, the vineyards have escaped any hail damage.
The vintage is due to commence around the week of September 7th. Keep your fingers crossed that the good weather continues. The long range weather forecast indicates that, though not as hot or as dry as July, the weather in August will be mainly sunny and warm.
July 1st 2015
The weather has been splendid for a month now, and the projections continue promising. Slowly but surely during the month the temperatures rose, and in this last week they have reached well above 30°. Meanwhile it has been dry but not excessively so. The vines have flowered successfully, indicating a plentiful crop, bar disasters. As I indicated a month ago, the harvest should commence around September 10th.
June 1st 2015
It was an uneventful winter. When it was cold – and it was never very cold – it was dry. When it rained the temperatures were mild. So there was no problem with icy roads. April was warmer and drier than usual, as it often has been recently, and this encouraged a bud-break a little earlier than usual. But May, apart from a couple of days in the middle of the month when it reached 32°, was characterised by sunny mornings, clouding over by lunchtime, and temperatures which struggled to exceed 20°. But it has been dry. The vines began to flower around the 25th. So we can expect the harvest to commence around the 10th September.
