2010 Chablis Les Vaillons 1er Cru

These 2010s from Long-Depaquit are attractive and well made, but they lack the excitement and visceral thrill that defines the vintage. The wines are also very similar to each other with little differentiation or delineation of site, which is pretty much the most basic fundamental building block of Burgundy.

Estate manager Matthieu Mangenot described the tricky growing season of 2011 in considerable detail.The flowering took place quickly, between May 20 and 25, and there was hydric stress up to the end of June, he told me.A heat spike on June 26 resulted in the loss of some grapes in the estate's grand cru vineyard, and there was a bit of hail 12 days later.But then July and the first half of August were rainy, with less sun than usual, and the maturation of the grapes proceeded slowly."We didn't get high sugars but we had nicely balanced acidity levels," he said.The harvest took place during the first 11 days of September, with potential alcohol levels between 11.2% and 12%.Mangenot noted that he's now using barrels for only five years, vs. ten previously, "to avoid getting weird aromas."Vosges is his forest of choice, as he believes this wood "gives more tension and promotes minerality in the wines."

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)