2010 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre 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)