2008 Chablis Les Preuses Grand Cru

I came away from this dinner impressed by the restaurant, since the service and food had been exquisite, and with a higher appreciation of Chablis than ever before. If this evening set out to demonstrate the apotheosis of Chablis, then it is “job done.” These wines may actually have surpassed my high expectations.

It is always a pleasure to taste with Vincent Dauvissat but at the back of my head, whenever admiring the purity and terroir expression of his Chablis from barrel, I am aware that his wines tend to close down after bottling. How many times have I been caught out during blind tastings by a sultry Dauvissat only to revisit the same wine a few years later and marveled at its beauty? Hence for his top crus I have advised on cellaring the wines for a decade so that they have time to put their difficult adolescences behind them. “Only Les Clos was touched by the frost in 2017,” he told me, flitting from barrel to barrel with his magic pipette. “The wines have good acidity. I started picking on 16 September starting in Les Vaillons and finished after nine days of picking in Les Preuses. It was a quick alcoholic fermentation and malolactic so that everything was done by Christmas. That’s because it is a warm cellar. But the wines have good acidity. No chaptalization was necessary and the alcohol degrees come in between 12.5° and 13.0°.”

Predictably, Dauvissat has some serious Chablis to offer in 2017. These are often some of the region’s most intellectual wines that can be extremely reduced in their youth, so my advice on drinking windows suggests several years of cellaring is optimal. Too many times I have tasted a Dauvissat wine blind and been caught out by its sultry reduced nature, only to re-taste the bottle later and find it has blossomed. In other words, if you buy Dauvissat, be sure to be patient. I often have a slight preference for his Les Preuses over Les Clos, yet the Montée de Tonnerre may ultimately represent the best value.

Dauvissat was quick to point out that 2009 was by no means a problem-free growing season in the vines. In June and July there was a lot of mildew, he told me, and of course there was plenty of millerandage during the flowering too. In contrast to the 2008s, which were not even tastable when I visited Dauvissat in June of 2009, the 2009 malos finished relatively early (the wines were racked in February) and Dauvissat was sure that he'd be bottling the new vintage earlier than the 2008s. He describes the young '09s as between 1989 and 1997 in style, but notes that they are lower in alcohol than the '89s. "They're low in acidity but the concentration from millerandage has given them enough stuffing." When I brought up the subject of how previous vintages were evolving, Dauvissat said that his 2004s are showing well now but that the 2002s still need time. To make the point, he opened a bottle of 2002 La Forest at the end of our tasting. Given its expressive aromas of bee pollen, honey, smoked meat and truffle, I could imagine some inexperienced tasters believing that the wine was just past its peak. But within minutes, this superb premier cru's powerful minerality and bright lemony cut made it clear that it was simply going through an awkward stage and was not ready to drink-at least not without a good aeration. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; the Dauvissat-Camus label is imported by Classic Wine Imports, West Roxbury, MA)