2008 Chablis Les Vaillons 1er 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)

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).