2010 Sancerre Chambrates

The Vacheron 2010 Sancerre Chambrates represents the inaugural bottling dedicated to nearly 20 year old vines (largely the estate’s own selection massale) on a plateau above the rockier, thinner-soiled Paradis. “This is a bit different on account of being raised 60% in barrique, but the rest in wooden upright,” relates Jean-Dominique Vacheron, which I find amusing given that only a couple of years ago, that description would have closely fit “the usual” regimen of elevage chez Vacheron! Imagine the briny, complex liquor of oysters mingled with nut oils, shrimp shell reduction, lime and grapefruit. Tart yellow plum and piquant plum pit emerge as one works this around in the mouth, and the finish is vibrant and compulsively saliva- and next-sip inducing. I suspect that this wine will intrigue, provoke, and delight for a decade. I wrote extensively in Issue 190 about recent developments at their domaine, and this year the dynamic duo of young cousins Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron filled my ear and my tasting glass with so many tales of new plantings, projects, and bottlings; insights into terroir and technique; and well-considered evolutions in approach, that I can only manage to touch on a few of these in the introductory lines and tasting notes which follow. Suffice it to say for keeping in view the big picture, that the nexus of human talent and vinous quality that is Domaine Vacheron keeps increasing in brightness and intensity (although one can’t help noting that the prices keep pace), while approaches in the vineyards become increasingly meticulous and labor-intensive, and those in the cellar emphasize – always in an experimental spirit – gentler fermentative extraction for Pinot and larger-sized, increasingly neutral barrels for both reds and whites. In particular, the use of upright wooden fermentors for aging Sauvignon as well – an approach only begun (as I described in issue 190) with certain wines of the 2009 vintage – has been greatly extended. Filtration has been virtually eliminated – entirely so for vintage 2010 – a development made possible, say the Vacherons, by the greater insights and watchfulness they now bring to bear on white wine elevage, which in any event has long been unusually leisurely at this address. Predictably placing great emphasis on what they take to be the fruits of prolonged biodynamic cultivation, the Vacherons point out that the grapes they began harvesting on September 24, 2010 were ripe and their acidity majority tartaric, observations that are certainly corroborated in the glass. Their claim to have largely avoided and otherwise sorted out any less than perfect fruit in 2011 – when they began harvesting three full weeks earlier than in 2010 – is similarly backed up by the gustatory evidence. The past two years have, as Jean-Laurent Vacheron notes, been characterized by “harvesting the Sauvignons a bit earlier, for freshness, and risking leaving the Pinots to ripen further and be picked last. With Pinot,” he adds, “we don’t pick apart any bunches on the sorting table; if there’s any rot the whole bunch gets eliminated,” a rigor that – when combined with later, riper picking – dovetails with their enhanced retention of whole berries and with gentler extraction, approaches that have taken to a new level of refinement (and, I suspect, of harmonious aging potential) what were already widely considered the best of their appellation – and if you don’t believe me, just compare the Vacherons’ 2010 reds with those of almost any other grower’s from that challenging Pinot vintage! (My notes on the nature of individual sites as well as on elevage were generally taken in connection with tasting the 2010s, so look for them incorporated into the applicable 2010 vintage tasting notes.) A Jon-David Headrick Selection (various importers), Asheville, NC; tel. (828) 252 8245; also, a Peter Vezan Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93