2018 Chablis Les Preuses Grand Cru

Vying with Raveneau as the best Chablis in town, Vincent Dauvissat’s wines are always fascinating to taste from barrel, although this year there was no blind bottle cracked open to completely fool me at the end. We focused on the 2019s in barrel at his cellar in Chablis on the same road as Patrick Piuze. “I started the picking on 12 September,” he told me. “There was half the volume of the 2018 and the wines show more concentration and tension.” This was borne out by his gestating wines that are incredibly consistent from cuvée to cuvée, his Vaillons, Montée de Tonnerre and Forêts different but occupying the same level of quality. Stylistically I do find similarities with Raveneau, which is unsurprising given similar élevages, though maybe without quite the same degree of roundness. The two Grand Crus are immense wines, Les Clos displaying unerring linearity that contradicts the warmth of the growing season, pipped by a stunning Les Preuses - Dauvissat at its zenith. Vincent Dauvissat opened three of 2018s that are in bottle and as I expected, there is clearly differences in terms of the lesser nervosité and terroir expression, even though the aromatics on the Les Preuses is wonderful.

I had heard rumors about Vincent Dauvissat's impending retirement, but I have to say I saw little evidence of that on my most recent visit. More importantly, the wines are just off the charts. When all is said and done, Dauvissat made a number of truly epic wines in 2017, culminating with Clos and Preuses, both of which are insanely beautiful. To me, Dauvissat embodies the style of Chablis today. The wines can be quite rich and potent, yet they retain tremendous site expression and plenty of sizzle. Readers will find all of those qualities in the 2017s. Dauvissat compares 2018 to 2009 in terms of balance. As it turns out, I drank a bottle of the 2009 Chablis a few days before I visited. I found it young and not quite ready to offer its best drinking.