2008 Chablis Les Blanchots Grand Cru

Regisseur Matthieu Mangenot was one of several Chablis makers who noted that the irregular flowering in 2009 resulted in a longer-than-usual harvest and affected many of the wines. "Part of the appellation, such as the area around Chichee flowered late, and those vines remained behind the rest to the end of the season," he told me. "There was a good deal of heterogeneity of ripeness at the harvest, with some wines showing fruity and floral qualities on the one hand, and some vegetal notes on the other. Even in some of our top vineyards, there were differences in fruit maturity within the same vines. But we had very rapid maturing of the fruit at the end, especially after some rain on September 5, and the acidity levels went down quickly. It was a real balancing act. Even on September 10, the fruit in some of our holdings still had too much vegetal character." In the end, Long-Depaquit began harvesting on September 15 (the estate picks its crus by hand, according to Mangenot), and brought in its top parcels in two or three tries Mangenot told me that the estate did very little work with the lees in 2009, stirring only during the three weeks between the end of the alcoholic fermentations and the early malos. "With low acidity, we did not want to risk getting heavy wines," he explained. In contrast, he went on, 2008 and 2007 needed more ampleur "The 2009s are fruity and rich, almost exotic, in the style of 2006 and 2005," he concluded. (Numerous importers, including Bayfield Importing, Manhasset, NY and Maddalena Vineyard Brands, Los Angeles CA)