2015 Arbois Pupillin Ploussard

I had the chance to tasted the latest red from Emmanuel Houillon, the 2015 Arbois Pupillin Poulsard, a cult wine by now. I really like the Overnoy/Houillon reds ten years after the vintage—when young, they sometimes feel shaky, closed and at times plain weird, as they change a lot and have their ups and downs. But I caught this wine on one of the "ups," and it felt surprisingly clean, with notes of forest floor and blood oranges. It's primary, tender and young, with freshness and an ethereal palate that incites you to keep drinking it. It's truly delicious, one of the best reds I've had from them, but I'm sure I'll like this more with some years in bottle. I later found the wine again while visiting the domaine, and I found that the wine had settled down quite a bit; or perhaps it was never very shaken, as it hadn't departed the winery. It had more focused aromas and a clearer note of the blood orange that provided even more freshness. Emmanuel explained that the old Poulsard had larger grapes and less color, and that's the one they like; but it is not even easy to decide when to harvest, because the color does not tell you if the grapes are ripe or not, because they never get dark. I could also preview the 2017, which will be a very short vintage of good quality but disastrous volumes. Only three months after the harvest and just de-vatted, the 2017 had some smoky character that characterizes the reds from here.