2006 Chablis Vaillons 1er Cru

Sebastien Dauvissat began harvesting on September 10 in 2007 and picked expeditiously in six days, as the sugars were mounting quickly. "We got good concentration in the ten days prior to harvest," he told me, "but it was not simply a gain in sugar resulting from the evaporation of water. And, better yet, there was no botrytis or surmaturite." Vintage 2007, he went on, resembles 2004 in the sense that both years suffered from a blockage of the normal ripening cycle due to extended periods of cloudy weather. But Dauvissat described the 2007s as "a combination of 2004 and 2005 in style, with very good balance and freshness." By the way, Dauvissat loves the 2006s, describing these wines as more minerally and more closed than the 2005s, and capable of longer aging.

The hot 2005 growing season favored a good sortie [i.e., the formation of the bunches] in 2006, which resulted in big clusters in which the grapes did not touch each other and thus were less likely to rot during humid conditions in August and mid-September. In fact, Dauvissat told me that the conditions in 2006 were perfect and that his fruit was virtually rot-free. He began harvesting on September 18 and finished five days later, with village fruit in the 12%-12.5% range and the crus between 12.5% and 13%. "The degrees skyrocketed during the first half of September," said Dauvissat, who told me that, for the second consecutive year, he did not chaptalize. Interestingly, Dauvissat finds the 2005s more open now than the '06s, not what one would expect from a hot year like '05.