2007 Chablis Les Beugnons 1er Cru

Regisseur Matthieu Mangenot, who has a degree in agronomy, describes 2008 as "a very nice vintage: we had a bad summer and some mildew in the vines, but good September weather concentrated the fruit, and we ultimately picked healthy fruit." Grape sugars were in the high 12% to 13% range, and very little chaptalization was necessary. Like a number of his colleagues, Mangenot believes that 2008 combines the richness and power of 2006 and 2005 with the acidity and freshness of 2007. At the outset, he told me, there was so little juice in the grapes owing to the concentrating effect of dry winds in September that he feared the wines would not show much fruit character, but by spring they actually displayed more fruit than the 2007s had at the same stage. He kept a lot of the lees and was still stirring them at the end of May, though less frequently than he had done prior to the end of the malolactic fermentations in late winter. But Mangenot also told me that he generally prefers to start with cleaner juice and to carry out a longer debourbage (up to 48 hours) "in order to bring terroir to the bottle." Following some personnel changes in recent years, things have stabilized at Long-Depaquit (Mangenot came aboard in July of 2007), and the wines here are once again back on track. (Numerous importers, including Atherton Wine Imports, Atherton, CA) Also recommended: 2007 Chablis (85).