The Droin 2008 Chablis Vaudesir is overtly stony, fusil, saline, alkaline, and smoky throughout, exhibiting a tightness and firmness to accompany those diverse mineral elements that put one more in mind of 2007. (But not of this particular wine in 2007, as witness my tasting note in issue 186.) Hints of lanolin, resin, and spice from barrel are well woven into a fabric that also features green walnut, rosemary, grapefruit, and apple. This really comes into its own in a finish rich in fruit yet transparent to myriad herbal, hedge flower, and mineral nuances in a way the corresponding 2006 and 2007 conspicuously were not. It should gain in richness and excitement over the next several years and show well for at least a decade.
”I think 2007 displays a bit more finesse than 2008 and might have the edge in ten or fifteen years,” suggests Benoit Droin’s, but adds that he doesn’t perceive his more generous 2008s – which he compares with 2002 – as less impressive today. Nor, in the least, do I: in fact, they represent the most exciting collection I have so-far tasted here; in my opinion a significant advance on Droin’s 2007s. I hope his estimated time frame proves accurate, but this is admittedly another of those Chablis addresses where – even putting aside one’s general concerns about premature oxidation – the rise in quality and the influence of a new generation are too recent to really be able to treat results from the 1990s as predictive of today’s wines’ evolution. Droin bottled all of his 2008s already in September. Unfortunately due to a schedule change that put us both under time pressure, I was able to taste only around 70% of the entire collection.
Importer: Eric Solomon Selections, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565
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