2004 Chablis Village

Tribut, who is based in the village of Poinchy, is Vincent Dauvissat's brother-in-law. The two share a lot of work in the vines and generally harvest together, picking by hand. Tribut vinifies his wines in cuve, leaving them there until the malolactic fermentations have finished, and then giving them a good six months in barrel, but using virtually no new oak. He bottles some wines before the next harvest but others as late as the second April. Tribut, whose style is for pure wines that repay aging, views the 2005s as "a bit exotic, due to some surmaturite," but describes his 2004s as "minerally and straight, although a bit diluted." I got the impression that Tribut considers both of these vintages good but not special. In fact, he ventured the opinion that a blend of 2004 and 2005 would have been more satisfying than either vintage on its own. Tribut used commercial yeasts in 2004 because of the colder ambient temperatures at the time of the harvest. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)