2001 Chablis Les Sechets 1er Cru

The 2002s are very full wines, with everything covered by fruit," says Jean Dauvissat, adding that the acid levels were in the sound 4 to 4.2 grams-per-liter range. It will be possible to drink the wines early or late. The 2000s, on the other hand, lack the acid spine for long aging," he went on. They're a bit mou and should be drunk within ten years." Two thousand was a vintage that could have used acidification, he told me, adding that he is not an acidifier. The 2001 harvest was much more difficult for this domain, as Dauvissat picks his fruit by machine and does not own a selection table. He did a longer, stronger debourbage to eliminate all but the finest lees. Not surprisingly, Dauvissat describes 2001 as a fragile vintage that needed a lot of SO2 (Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Shekomeko, NY) Also tasted: 2001 Chablis Montmains*.

Dauvissat describes 2001 as a fragile but reasonably well-balanced vintage with a tendency toward oxidation. Although many critics of machine-picking say that this labor-saving method is especially unsuited to a rain-plagued harvest (too many grape skins are broken and any rot on the skins can quickly begin to affect the must), Dauvissat claims this approach is actually advantageous, as it allows him to get the fruit into the cuverie with a shorter period of exposure to air. Beginning with the 2000 vintage, Dauvissat has a new system whereby he can filter through plaque by gravity, an improvement over his old kieselguhr filter, which required him to pump the wine. Dauvissat told me that he made 55 to 60 hectoliters per hectare in 2001, and that yields in 2000 and 1999 were higher. The huge 2000 crop, he told me, was a bit dilute, and lower in acidity than 2001; "not a grandiose vintage, but good" was the way he described 2000. I found Dauvissat lesser '01s distinctly lean, like so many wines from this vintage that had to be brought in early before rot grew rampant. Dauvissat poured me 2000s from his early bottling (September '01), as he felt the wines from the May '02 bottling (earmarked for the American importer) would be much too closed to show. Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Shekomeko, NY)