2007 Chablis Vaudevey

The late-picked Laroche 2007 Chablis Vaudevay (spelled on their label as one word) smells of ripe peach and pineapple with a dusty overtone of chalk. Toasted almond and bright refreshing citrus paradoxically combine with a rather soft texture (the legacy, no doubt, of active time on the lees until summer), and this finishes with enough liveliness to invigorate, with a nice sense of lift, and with saline, chalky, and lightly bitter fruit pit suggestions. I would plan to serve it over the next 2-3 years. Winemaker Denis de la Bourdonnaye seems bullish on his 2007s and their aging potential, despite emphasizing what he felt was the need to extensively work what lees he retained, and to bottle correspondingly later to avoid too-lean an impression. Having said that, de la Bourdonnaye then goes on to observe that he thinks the use of screw-cap closures - to which this estate was among the first in France to commit - is especially well-suited to the personality of the vintage, and to -the preservation of precision and minerality during long aging.- The majority of the 2007 wines here came in at little more than 12% potential alcohol, he relates, and chaptalization was negligible. It was announced in late September that Languedoc negociant Jeanjean had acquired Laroche, although early indications pointed toward continuity in the Chablis estate, with Michel Laroche remaining as director. Importer: Remy-Cointreau USA, New York, NY; tel. (212) 424-2244