2006 Chablis Les Lys

Reflecting its relatively cool eastern exposure above Milly, the Fevre 2006 Chablis Les Lys was (as usual for this site) picked near the end of harvest. From 50-year-old vines and vinified half-and-half in tank and barrel, this displays a hint of vanillin and spice that reflect the presence of wood. With a gorgeous nose of iris, rowan, and chalk dust, it comes to the palate with impressive sheer density, and a winning combination of creamy richness of texture with brightness and grip. Saline, sweetly savory, chalky, and almost chewy tactile mineral dimensions vie for attention with luscious pit fruits and persistent inner mouth florality leading to a superbly concentrated finish. It should hold well for 8-10 years. Didier Seguier has presided over a remarkable surge in quality at this address during the past decade in which Henriot has owned Fevre. The wines are now every bit as impressive as the estate’s vast and superbly-situated acreage, not to mention uncannily consistent in quality. Somehow, Fevre has acquired a reputation in some quarters simply for their widespread use of oak. In fact – just as at the region’s other top addresses, Dauvissat and Raveneau – the wood here is nearly always discreet, and Seguier is keen to finish the elevage on most of his wines in tank once he deems them to have spent long enough in barrel. Hand-harvesting and two sorting tables help insure quality of fruit, and Seguier’s insistence that botrytis was unproblematic for him in either 2006 or 2005 is ably supported by the gustatory evidence. Fermentation was relatively rapid, he relates, and the malo-lactic transformation not especially profound, due to the dominance of ripe, tartaric acid in the fruit. With one exception, the grand cru wines (all of which are vinified ca. 80% in barrel) had just been prepped for bottling (including cross-flow filtration) when I tasted them, but that did not prevent them from showing brilliantly. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6706