2009 Chablis Les Pargues

Servin began harvesting the 2009s on September 20th . The wines were mostly aged in steel, with the exception of the Cuvée Massale, Les Preuses, Bougros and Les Clos, which saw some oak, as described above. I tasted all of the 2009s from bottle except the Preuses and Clos, which were still in steel. The 2009s are quite rich and need a fair bit of aeration to show at their best. I tasted the 2010s from steel and/or cask, with the exception of the Vaillons, Montée de Tonnerre and Les Forêts, which were in bottle.

This estate started harvesting in 2010 on September 20, but picked slowly, according to Francois Servin. "The potential alcohol was there early," he told me, "but there were still a lot of high acidities. Some people picked too soon." Oidium arrived late in the season and started on the leaves, said Servin. "But because it generally did not reach the grapes quickly, it did not do much damage," he added. Servin was not the only proprietor to maintain that the rain that fell during the week of the 27th was not all bad. "Until the end of the first week of harvesting, there was very little juice in the grapes. But then the rain brought more juice and lowered acidity levels somewhat." Still, he considers the 2010s to be a bit more concentrated than the 2008s.

As at some of the other top Chablis addresses I visit each year, this estate continues to refine its wines by adjusting its use of oak in various cuvees, both in response to the requirements of each new vintage and simply as a stylistic decision. As a result, these wines can be something of a moving target, although as a general rule I find much less evidence of the exotic, and sometimes a bit resiny, oak notes that occasionally plagued these wines as recently as six or seven years ago. Today's wines are cleaner than ever before but with no loss of their power or personality. Francois Servin told me that he uses a commercial yeast that produces a leisurely and relatively cool (20o to 22o C) fermentation, which gives the wines a more glyceral texture.