Nearly half of Droin’s 2007 Chablis Valmur is aged in first and second year barrique, but amid a brash, refreshing, and invigoratingly bitter barrage of citrus and its rinds, one doesn’t pick up overt woodiness. This shares with most of its siblings a formidable density allied in this case to amplitude but firmness, too. Toasted nuts, citrus zest, and chalk dust inform an emphatic, long finish. It should be worth cellaring for half a dozen years or more. In striking contrast with the experience of most of his colleagues, Benoit Droin’s 2007s were very slow to begin – much less complete – their malolactic transformations. Droin believes in the potential of machine harvesting in a majority of his vineyards, even in a year with hail, and the bottled results once again point up the foolishness of glib generalizations such as abound on that particular subject. That said, the potential weak spot in some of his 2007s – perhaps due to much-reduced yields, perhaps to hail per se, and a feature to which some tasters will certainly be more sensitive than others – is their tendency toward bitterness. These wines weighed-in in the low 13s natural alcohol, a bit higher than the vintage norm.Importer: Eric Solomon Selections, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565