TN: A selection of Premier Cru & Grand Cru Chablis 7/2/11

[n4sir]

Last Monday I attended a tasting of (with the exception of the opening pair of wines) Premier and Grand Cru Chablis. All of the following wines were bottled under natural cork:

2008 Francois Raveneau Chablis: Bright, very pale straw/green colour. Very tight and mineraly nose, waxy with lemon and then apple, a little honey with breathing; the palate's just as tight and lemony/spicy with a big bang of acid mid-palate, finishing long and slatey with a pithy end, the texture becoming more oily/slimy with breathing. Its power is impressive, but at this stage of its journey it's also hard work without food; an interesting start to the tasting.

2006 Gilbert Picq Chablis Vieilles Vignes: Bright, plate straw with a tinge of green. Sweeter than the opening wine, more developed with a honeyed/yeasty bouquet, and melon fruit on the palate; it's noticeably softer too, a slippery/milky texture with bright but less obvious acidity, finishing fruity like a pale ale. It lacks the power and length of the previous wine, but it's very approachable right now, maybe a little too much so.

2005 Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis 1er Cru Mont de Milieu: Bright, very pale green/straw. Buttery and spicy with some citrus peel, but it's also just as tight and mineraly as the 2008 Raveneau; the palate opens with mouthwatering acidity, but the mineraly/spicy characters drop off rather quickly to reveal some toasty oak and a nutty finish. A polarising wine, with some people thinking this was aldehydic and/or past it.

2004 Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis 1er Cru Mont de Milieu: Very pale straw/green. Very herbal and spicy, opening with apples and lime, a little gooseberry too; it's softer and lighter weight than the 2005 vintage, more than a little Sauvignon Blanc like at times, with a lick of lanolin on the finish. This was just as polarising as the 2005 vintage, many finding the green/herbal characters too much to bear.

2005 Domaine Louis Michel & Fils Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir: Very pale straw/green. Unoaked despite some characters seemingly pointing to the contrary, opening with fennel, texta/marker fumes, some turpentine and lanolin; the palate opens with a bang of lanolin and melon before dropping off heavily mid-palate, finishing with fennel characters and an oily/slimy texture. I thought the structure of the palate was odd, what I would describe as lopsided.

2004 Domaine Louis Michel & Fils Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir: Corked.

2005 Domaine Louis Michel Chablis 1er Cru Montmains: Pale straw green. A tight, flinty/mineraly wine with just a whiff of lanolin, but the lemony fruit is a huge step up in scale compared to everything that preceded it while retaining its elegance, darting hints of fennel and clove adding interest, finishing oily and a little milky. The first wine of the tasting that I would describe as the complete package, with excellent length, balance and cellar potential.

2002 Domaine Pinson Freres Chablis 1er Cru Mont de Milieu: Corked.

2002 Francois Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Chapelot: Pale straw/green. A polar opposite in style to the 2005 Louis Michel Montmains but equally impressive, fat with butterscotch and pan fried herbs, peach and a little salty bacon; the peach/melon fruit balances out the higher acidity, the mid-palate fine and mineraly, and some cashew appears on the long, milky finish. It should be noted some thought the heavily worked style resulted in the wine resembling something from elsewhere in Burgundy instead of Chablis; I honestly don't care if it's this good.

2004 Domaine William Fevre Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir: So badly corked it was replaced before the tasting even began.

2002 Domaine William Fevre Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir: Pale straw. The nose and palate are slightly sherried with some caramel, and while the length is decent the acid sticks out a mile because what fruit is there simply isn't enough. The unanimous verdict was this had to be prematurely oxidised.

2000 Jean-Paul & Benoit Droin Chablis Grand Cru Grenouilles: Pale straw. Smells a little fishy to start with, followed by sweeter fennel and lanolin characters; the palate's spicy and grippy, with grapefruit, fennel and a little fatty bacon, finishing with spicy oak and excellent length. Excellent drinking now.

2000 Domaine Louis Michel & Fils Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos: Pale straw/green. Some initial similarities to the 2000 Droin Grenouilles that preceded it, not as sweet though, stinky wool carpet to begin with followed by turpentine; the palate texture is oily/viscous with a spicy finish, the balance of grapefruit, acidity and length about the same. While there's not much between them, I thought the lovely mouthfeel and complexity of the Droin gave it an edge, probably because of the well-judged oak.

2002 Domaine Rene et Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru, La Forest: Pale straw. Still looks young and fresh, full of lanolin and crisp apple characters, crunchy acid and spicy oak firmly in the background, finishing very long and mineraly, a hint of fennel with breathing. The weight, balance and length of this wine are impeccable, and only its eldest sibling topped it tonight.

2001 Domaine Rene et Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru, La Forest: Medium straw. The most advanced of the three vintages of Dauvissat La Forest tonight, buttery and spicy with wool carpet and hazelnut characters, some pan-fried herbs and oregano, a little bacon too; the palate's the softest of the trio with lovely length and balance, drinking superbly right now. It may have lived up to its lesser vintage tag, but it's a damn good drink all the same.

1997 Domaine Rene et Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru, La Forest: Pale to medium straw. Seems just as fresh as the bottle of the 2002 vintage, full of lanolin, apple and spices, a little hint of butter and diesel with breathing; the palate's ever so slightly softer, a lacy texture with mouthwatering acidity, brilliant balance and length. WOTN.

1997 Domaine Rene et Vincent Dauvissat Chablis Grand Cru, Les Clos: Pale to medium straw. Sweet and slightly sherried, with caramel and toffee characters; the palate's a bit better, still some lemony characters and a honeyed finish, but it should be a heck of a lot better than this. Almost certainly another victim of premature oxidation.

1995 La Chablisienne Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses: Bright straw/green. Noticeably different to the Dauvissat wines, soft, buttery, sweet and spicy with unusual cheesy/herbal characters, and much sweeter melon fruit; the palate appears very soft and clumsy in comparison, mineraly and milky/buttery with a slightly bitter finish.


Cheers,
Ian

[griff]

Nice notes. Looks like another demonstration that the value in Chablis is at 1er Cru level.

cheers

Carl

[Wayno]

Unsurprisingly, looks like a few cork issues too!

[n4sir]

I added these to the Wiki Oxidized Burgundies page this morning - looks like the premox issue isn't going away in a hurry.

http://oxidised-burgs.wikispaces.com/

Cheers,
Ian

[Gavin Trott]

I added these to the Wiki Oxidized Burgundies page this morning - looks like the premox issue isn't going away in a hurry.

http://oxidised-burgs.wikispaces.com/

Cheers,
Ian

Nope

I opened a pre-moxed 2007 1er Cru Chablis just last weekend or so! Very disappointed ...

...

more so because straight after that I opened a 2009 Keller Riesling (stunning wines usually) ... corked ..

.

Doncha hate that!

..

[griff]

Speaking of cork taint, I went to an offline over here recently in the UK. Two wines corked yet one of the wines had a quite few admirers. I sat at one end of the table and kept quiet. Brett admiration was also quite vociferous!

[Nayan]

Carl,

The Wendouree was definitely corked; which was the other one?

Ian,

Nice line-up of wines there. Good to see you are continuing to drink well.

Cheers,

Nayan

[dlo]

Good notes as always. Funny about the two Fevre's. I've been drinking heaps of Fevre (mostly GC) since the 2000 vintage and have yet to be hit by cork taint or the pox. Now I've made a comment I'm sure to be cursed with future openings.

[griff]

Carl,

The Wendouree was definitely corked; which was the other one?

Ian,

Nice line-up of wines there. Good to see you are continuing to drink well.

Cheers,

Nayan

It was the Brum offline, not the London one

cheers

Carl