2007 Chablis Les Preuses

The 2007 Chablis Preuses – reflecting the nearly one-quarter of this site (in two parcels) that Fevre owns – immediately forces the taster into a crustacean vocabulary, with the mineral, saline, sweet, and seductively savory character of scallops and lobster shell reduction coming to mind. A superb creaminess and uncanny sense of underlying density combines with levity and subtly citric refreshment – imagine a rich, creamy shellfish stock whipped to a froth – while wafting iris perfume and the wine’s sheer extract combine for a sense of sugar-free sweetness in a soothing, sensationally long and distinctive finish. Lucky are those who can follow a few bottles of this for the next dozen or more years. Didier Seguier and his team have managed to follow up their amazing 2006s with an equally remarkable collection of 2007s (though he insists that 6 to 9 months after bottling – when I tasted them – “is the worst time for expressing the purity of fruit”!). Harvesting here began early, on September 6 – the earliest start on record save for 2003 – but without feeling any compunction about taking one’s time, Seguier emphasized. Even so, the task was completed in 11 days, harvesting fruit of impeccable ripeness and harmonious though prominent acidity at a time when many growers were wise not to have begun yet. Without question, the rigorous sorting that all of the grapes undergo here is among the keys to the purity and the transparency to nuance of these wines. As usual at this address, even when one reaches the roughly 80% level of barrique (none, new, though) a smell or taste of wood is the farthest thing from one’s mind. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6706