2010 Chablis Mont de Milieu 1er Cru

I tasted this year with Jean-Pierre Grossot's daughter Eve, as he was showing his wines at a weekend salon in Tour. Despite her advanced pregnancy, Eve fearlessly climbed up and down the ladders to pull 2011 samples from the Grossots' large stainless steel tanks. Eve told me that the family made the full permitted yields in 2011, for the first time since 2004. Grape sugars were 11.5% and up for the premier crus, which ripened quickly through the harvest period (the estate began on September 5), and acidity levels in the post-malo wines are in the 4.0 grams-per-liter range, which Eve described as slightly higher than the 2011s, with the exception of the Fourchaumes. I will wait to assess the village wine when it's in bottle, as it's virtually impossible at this point to know how the various lots will be combined--and labeled.

Grossot describes his young 2010s as "rich, charming wines with good acidity but not too much." The wines, he added, are easier than the '07s and, especially, the '08s, the strongest recent vintage for this estate. Grossot compared 2010 to 1998. "A bit of botrytis gave the '98s gras and early charm without affecting the wines" aromas." Grossot is also optimistic about the future of his 2009s, which he described as "fruity and dense. They make good aperitifs now but they will get richer with age, and more minerally."