The 2015 Vintage: Rewarding Now and for Years to Come
By Mary Margaret McCamic MW | General Manager, Karolus Wine Imports
One of the things I love most about wine is its evolution over time. It’s never totally predictable; there are ups and downs, times when a wine is more awake and alive, and others when it is more quiet and less expressive. We always take our best guess as to when the “highs” will be, and in many ways that’s part of the fun of opening a bottle.
The 2015 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne was a rockstar when we first released it back in 2017. It was round and alluring from the sun-driven year, yet it still showed depth of flavor and vibrant acidity. Sure, it had some baby fat, as all young wines do, but it was sheer pleasure that needed a few years to fully integrate. After the first year of its release, it went a little quiet, showing finer lines and a more taut character than it initially offered. Luckily, during this time, so many other vintages really started to show their stuff. The 2008 came around with fresh tropical fruit and light honeyed qualities. The 2013 came out of its shell, offering plenty of texture and depth of flavor. And the 2011 - WOW - it really shined with its purity of fruit, flinty mineral notes and vibrancy.
Toward the end of last year, I started to notice a theme among the emails I was getting from mailing list members. “We just opened the 2015 that we purchased a few years ago. It was amazing!” or “Do you have any more of the 2015 vintage?” I smiled to myself with each email, responded in kind, all the while thinking smugly to myself, '“I told you so…”
I recently started pouring the 2015 vintage at a few few events, too, alongside some library vintages that always impress a crowd. Time after the time, the 2015 vintage came up as a favorite for its youthful charm yet clearly burgeoning wisdom. It’s a vintage that is so easy to enjoy right now while simultaneously revealing that it is at a stage in its development that is just so exciting. It almost catches you when you take a sip and says, “Not so fast - I’m not just a young classic. I’m starting to have something much more serious to say.”
I’m definitely listening.
A few nights ago I opened a bottle with my husband to enjoy over a fresh seafood stew, eager to see how the 2015 would show from beginning to end. Below I recount how the wine showed over the course of an hour. (Yes, we completed the bottle in just over an hour, despite our best efforts to nurse each sip.)
6:02pm - My husband excitedly brings up the bottle of 2015 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne, cradling it like a prized possession and admiring it as he places it on the counter to open it.
6:04pm - The bottle is opened, the cork quickly examined, and a taste poured in two glasses. Together, we swirl and smell. White flowers, ripe peach, and hints of lemon curd leap from the glass. I comment that the wine is a touch too cold, and needs to warm a bit so that its aromas can be fully appreciated. We both gulp our tasting pours quickly, then refill our glasses to let the wine open up and come up to a warmer temperature.
6:06pm - My husband wonders if we should decant the bottle, to let it warm and open up. (I do this with many white wines, young or aged. It enhances aromas, softens mouthfeel, and can often allow a wine to truly show its best.) We decide to decant as we enjoy our first glass and finish up cooking dinner.
6:15pm - My glass is starting to show more vibrant lemon curd, riper stone fruits, and enhanced floral notes. Slightly warmer in the glass, I can truly start to appreciate the texture of the wine; it feels like satin on the palate, with a long, vervy finish.
6:30pm - We’ve already poured another glass for ourselves as the seafood stew we are making continues to reduce. This is the problem with great wine and great company - before you know it, you’ve had half a bottle. The wine has been in decanter for about 25 minutes, and now shows heightened aromatics, a broad, exciting mouthfeel, and plenty of depth. There’s stone fruit, citrus, hints of spice and very subtle honey amidst pretty floral notes and a silken, satisfying texture. We remind ourselves not to rush through the bottle.
6:48pm - The stew is finally ready, and fills the kitchen with fresh herbs and spices. We’ve managed to save about half of the bottle to have while we eat, and what strikes us the most about the 2015 vintage is its ability to combine vibrancy and mouthfeel. It’s a vintage that not only speaks to its place — the westward facing vines of Corton-Charlemagne — but also of its time: the 2015 vintage. Many remember it for its warmth, but this vintage is so much more than sunshine in a bottle. Its balance is breathtaking every time I have it. Its ripe fruit walks a tightrope of acidity, making the wine tense and exciting.
7:08pm - We’ve finished the bottle far too soon, just as we promised ourselves we wouldn’t. But in just over an hour, we got to experience a beautiful bottle bring us so much pleasure and conversation.
Though some would argue that 5 years is far too early to be opening a Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne, I would suggest that it is the perfect time to check in on a vintage like 2015. It can help us understand where a wine is in its life, and where it is going. A wine’s evolution is not always linear. It ebbs and flows like we do, in some cases showing brighter, more vibrant aromas and flavors. At other times it is resting, waiting to become what it will be. Some wine lovers prefer primary fruit to more developed, hazelnut and caramel notes that come with a wise, old white Burgundy. There is no right or wrong.
Whether you enjoy the 2015 vintage now in an indisputable moment of liveliness, or continue to wait a decade or more to enjoy it for softer, more tertiary and honeyed flavors, I hope you do just that — enjoy.