2013 Chablis Montmains 1er Cru

Sébastien Dauvissat harvested between September 15 and 20 in 2014, bringing in his fruit with potential alcohol between 12% and 12.5%. Following tumultuous alcoholic fermentations (he did not chaptalize), he had to heat the cellar in December to encourage the malolactic fermentations to take place and he racked the wines in March. He told me that he did not keep as much of the lees in 2014 because "the wines were already so fresh." Dauvissat plans to bottle all of the 2014s before the 2015 harvest as he's out of 2013s. He described the young 14s as less fruity and more minerally than the '12s, but added that "the fruity years like 2012 are more likely to shut down in the bottle."

Dauvissat picked in 2013 during what he called "the best window" (from September 29 through October 3), noting that his vines were more touched by oidium than by rot, and that the oidium "concentrated the grapes without adding off-tastes. Also, having oidium forestalls rot." Dauvissat noted that the '13s show a petrolly mineral component.

Sebastien Dauvissat describes 2013, with its cold, rainy spring, as perfect for odium. The irony is of course obvious. Yields are down about 50% across the board, but in exchange natural sugars were good. Dauvissat is always among the last to bottle, so it will be a while before most of these 2013s are in the market. I was also able to taste a number of as yet unbolted 2012s.

Sebastien Dauvissat is never in a hurry to bottle his wines and thus I should not have been surprised to taste some of his 2012s for a second time from tank or barrel.He views 2012 as a stricter vintage than 2013 and believes the wines are closing down now, a bit like the 2002s did at a similar stage.(I have not provided a new set of notes on the 2012s, as my scores were little changed from a year ago.)Dauvissat told me he preferred his 2013s to his 2012s "in general," emphasizing that he brought in the new crop during the eight days before heavy rain arrived on October 5.It was a very small crop, he added (32 hectoliters per hectare on average for the domain), with more fruit lost to oidium than to rot.Potential alcohols were quite healthy--generally in the 12.7% range--and he did not chaptalize.