IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS

Weber noted that the 2016 white wines made from reasonably healthy crop levels remind him of the 2008s, which he described as a classic vintage, another late harvest with good ripeness allied to sound acidity, but emphasized that it’s hard to generalize about the ‘16s owing to the widely variable conditions. Very little chaptalization was needed as grape sugars were typically 12.5% or higher (the Montrachet actually came in at 13.2%), and Weber did a gentler but longer pressing “to get good extraction without the bad stuff,” noting that the grape skins were thick. (He’s also using less and less SO2 during the vinification, which he believes is “positive for aromatic expression.”) Like the 2008s, he added, the ‘16s needed a long time in barrel to become expressive, and the malolactic fermentations have been quite long (only a few of the wines had finished when I visited Bouchard at the end of May). Weber rolled the barrels twice, as he prefers to keep the wines cloudy, and he may continue this practice as he thinks it’s better than batonnage.