2009 Chablis Les Vaillons 1er Cru

According to regisseur Matthew Mangenot, 2010 brought difficult climatic conditions, beginning with winter frost that damaged some of the estate''s vines in Vaillons. The very warm early May followed by a cool and rainy flowering set the stage for very heterogeneous ripening of the fruit. There was then a short window to pick, between rains in early September and more rain later in the month. Long-Depaquit started picking on September 22, and shortened their harvesting period from a normal 13 days to just 10. The keys to making good wine, said Mangenot, were canopy management to aerate the fruit, and yield control to get more regular ripeness. Beyond work in the vines Mangenot has implemented a number of improvements in the cellar with the objective of making more classic wines. For starters, he's pressing the grapes a bit longer, "to extract more slowly, without getting a green aspect." He's then doing a more precise debourbage to ensure cleaner fermentations. "We want to age the wines on the dead yeasts, but not on the bourbes," he told me. And he has also made big changes in the selection of oak. "We want to get rid of the sweet, vanillin notes in the wines, the Cote de Beaune character," he said, adding that while previously the estate used its barrels for up to 10 years, now it''''s only 3 to 5. Mangenot describes the young 2010s as "fairly close in style to 2008, but with a hint of 2005's fruit. The wines have good acidity but are also quite fruity and not aggressive." (Numerous importers, including Bayfield Importing, Manhasset, NY and Maddalena Vineyard Brands, Los Angeles, CA)

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)