2009 Chablis Butteaux Vieilles Vignes 1er Cru

This is a gorgeous set of wines from Louis Michel. The estate farms 25 hectares of vineyards, most of which are premier cru. The wines are made with native yeasts (for both the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations) and are aged on their fine lees in stainless steel with one racking after the malos. Guillaume Gicqueau-Michel describes the 2010 vintage as a fairly easy one; once he got past an irregular flowering that lowered yields 15-30% across his family's parcels. Despite mixed weather during the harvest, the fruit achieved fairly homogenous maturity and was brought in over eight days starting on September 23 rd . Vintage 2009 presented more challenges as ripening was less even, which caused the harvest to spread out over thirteen days, quite long by this house's historical standards. The 2009 harvest started on September 15th . Overall the 2009s have lower acidities and more overt fleshiness while the 2010s will offer most of their pleasure over time. I tasted all of the 2010s from tank, except the Petit Chablis. The estate finished bottling its 2009s with the grand crus in May, 2011.

Guillaume Gicqueau-Michel, the nephew of Jean-Loup Michel who started vinifying here in 2007, stopped using commercial yeasts in 2008 with the objective of accentuating the estate''s various terroirs. In 2010, the fermentations (alcoholic and malolactic) took up to three months to finish, which Gicqueau-Michel said reduced the wines'' maturing time on the lees and allowed the domain to make fresh, light, precise wines. At the beginning, the 2010s reminded me of the 2008s, he told me. "But 2008 is more powerful, and their balance is perfect." Acidity levels after malo are in the 3.8 to 4.3 grams per liter range in 2010, noted Gicqueau-Michel, while in 2008 they are "4.2 and up." The estate does not do a tartaric stabilization, as the wines clarify on their own in Michel''s cold cellar. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)

I tasted this year with Jean-Loup Michel's nephew Guillaume Gicqueau-Michel, who is now sharing winemaking responsibilities here. Like a number of his colleagues in Chablis, Gicqueau-Michel made special note of the uneven ripeness in 2009, even within a single vineyard. The Louis Michel estate normally takes 7 or 8 days to harvest but in 2009 it took 13, he told me, with numerous parcels picked in 2 or 3 passes. As in 2008, the 2009s were vinified with wild yeasts, and this change has brought more texture and complexity to these all-stainless steel wines. Gicqueau-Michel noted that the 2009s benefited from the longer fermentations associated with wild yeasts, and that all but the Petit Chablis and Chablis were still on their fine lees at the beginning of June. "But 2009 lacks the acidity to be a great year," he told me. "Two thousand eight has it." (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)