2009 Chablis Village

When I mentioned to Tribut that some of his colleagues claimed that their wines made from fruit picked after the rains started on September 24 showed a juicier quality and better balance, he demurred, saying that the pre-rain picks were more invigorating. Still, despite the fresh acidity of the 2010s, said Tribut, they're easier wines than the comparatively taut 2008s. He describes the 2009s as opulent but a bit heavy; when I tasted them with him, he found them almost too rich. The 2010s are between the two earlier years in style, he told me. Tribut now waits until the second spring to bottle all of his wines, giving them 12 months in cuve and 6 in oak. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)

The laconic Laurent Tribut rarely gets overly animated about the new vintage, and his capsule descriptions of each new year are particularly forthright. In 2009, he told me, "the grapes were ripe and clean. The only fault of the year is a lack of acidity. But the wines are rich and fat." In fact, he added, some of the 2009s were a bit heavy before the malos, but their time in barriques is bringing out their inherent minerality and firming up the wines. He went on to say that 2008 is "richer than 2007 but in the same spirit," which strikes me as a particularly felicitous combination for these normally steely mineral- and citrus-driven wines. The acid levels in Tribut's 2008s are in the solid 4.5 to 4.8 grams-per-liter range, and he reported pHs as low as 3.05. Tribut starts all of his wines in cuve, then eventually moves them into older barriques. Most of the wine is bottled late, during the second spring. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)