2010 Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru

Vincent Dauvissat brought in his 2011s beginning on September 1st. Dauvissat likes the vintage to 2009, but with a little more verve. For the first time malos were done by Christmas, which Dauvissat attributes to the precocious personality of the vintage. I tasted all of the 2011s from barrel, where they were aging on their fine lees after having been racked once. Dauvissat talks about the 2010 harvest as having two components. The fruit he brought in early had notable maturity and considerable concentration because of the tiny yields, while the fruit he brought in after the September rain had a little bit better overall balance, which is to say alcohols around 12.5 and acidities around 6-7%, versus 13.5% and 7.5%, alcohol and acidity respectively, for the fruit brought in early. As a comparison, overall acidities for the 2011s were around 4%, which is to say significantly lower than 2010. Dauvissat told me his father planted the family's vineyards with rootstocks that encourage early maturity, and that is a key in understanding many vintages, including 2010, when an irregular flowering lowered yields dramatically. In 2010 the earlier flowering parcels got the worst of the bad weather, while the parcels that flower later did better as the weather turned warmer and more stable at the most critical time. Overall yields were down approximately 40%, while Sechets and Vaillons were also hit by frost.

While most of the Chablis growers I visit don't use their small oak barrels for more than ten years, which already is a lot longer than their colleagues on the Cote de Beaune do, Vincent Dauvissat has a cellar full of antiques.(The original section of his cellar dates back to the 16th century.)He showed me a barrel in its 52nd year (he has ancient feuillettes as well as futs), and I tasted a superb sample of his 2011 Les Preuses out of a 1981 barrel."You can smell all the past crus and vintages in them," he told me, in a Raiders of the Lost Ark moment.These receptacles, of course, are as close to neutral as oak barrels can be.Dauvissat began picking on September 1 in 2011 and his finished wines will be in the low 12% to 12.5% alcohol range.He described acidity levels as "lowish" but did not chaptalize or acidify."I prefer to let the terroir speak," he summarized.As usual, his wines will be among the stars of the vintage. (Vineyard Brands, www.vineyardbrands.com; wines bottled under the Dauvissat-Camus label are imported by Classic Wine Imports, www.classicwineimports.com)

Vincent Dauvissat's 2010 harvest started on September 21st, a few days earlier than his average over the last ten years, which has been closer to September 25th. The vintage is marked by very low yields. Couleur and millerandage were most pronounced in the grand crus, where yields were 40% lower than normal. At the same time, the wines have retained plenty of acidity, making for very interesting personalities across the range. The 2010s were aged in oak (roughly 10% new), on their fine lees, and racked once after the malos, which were finished by the end of January. The Forest, Preuses and Clos saw some new oak during the alcoholic fermentation. Dauvissat planned to begin bottling the 2010s in October or November, 2011. In 2009, Dauvissat harvested a week earlier, starting on September 14. Vintage 2009 was marked by a hot August that resulted in ripe wines with acidities that are lower than normal. Within the context of Chablis, where acidity is rarely lacking, a warm yet well-balanced season can be a good thing in that the wines are easier to drink when young, which certainly appears to be the case here.

There were two different harvests in 2010, said Vincent Dauvissat, who started picking on September 21: one before the rains that began on September 24, and one after. "Before the rain, the grapes were very concentrated, with high sugars, strong acidity and a bit of noble rot," he explained. "After the rain, the acidity fell, the yield was higher, and there was more juice in the grapes." On the whole, Dauvissat considers the 2010s to be tight, clean, classic wines, even though he described the grapes as "more mature" than in 2009. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; wines bottled under the Dauvissat-Camus label are imported by Classic Wine Imports, West Roxbury, MA)