2003 Chablis Montmains 1er Cru

.The Brocards harvested during the first half of October in 2004, holding out for better ripeness and getting good minerality.Potential alcohols were in the 11% to 12.5% range, with the estate's fruit from their oldest vines highest in sugar.According to Julien Brocard, the family pressed with very soft pressure in order to extract a minimum of vegetal character.They also did a longer settling of the must than in most years.Paterfamilias Jean-Marc Brocard described the 2004s as "elegant in style but a bit timid today, unlike the '03s."The Brocards offer an extensive array of Chablis bottlings, and took over Domaine Azo with the 2004 vintage.This year I also tasted their "sensations collection" (Sensuel, Mineral and Extreme), premier cru blends designed to showcase very different sectors and soils of Chablis.While I understand what the family is trying to accomplish with these wines, I wonder if these additional bottlings simply confuse consumers who already have many, many wines to choose from at this address.

Among the Chablis estates I visited at the beginning of June, Brocard was the latest harvester in 2003, waiting until September 10 to start picking. We wanted to get better phenolic maturity," explained Julien Brocard, who manages the estate's vineyards. The little rains in early September unblocked the maturing process.Still, the surmaturite we got in 2003 was the result of concentration through evaporation, rather than from real phenolic maturity," he added. We may have lost some tartaric acidity, but we actually found that the malic acidity in the grapes rose from about one to two grams in the week or so before the harvest.We added a little tartaric acidity to the must only to correct the pHs to get better fermentations. (Martine's Wines, San Rafael CA and Lauber Imports, New York NY