Actually from 25 year old vines on the north side of Vaulorent (as had been the corresponding 2006), Guffens- 2008 Chablis Fourchaume is dominated by fresh lime with oyster shell, alkaline, saline, and otherwise marine mineral elements. A wine for the real rock hound, while it exhibits the relative fullness one would expect from its site, it also displays a rather tart citricity in its gripping finish. Incidentally, this went into barrel briefly and solely for the duration of its malo-lactic conversion but, reports Guffens, received a lot of lees enrichment in tank, for which one can imagine that this wine was crying out! I would expect it to be worth following for at least 4-6 years, in the course of which it might well become more winsome. -To those who wrote that 2007 was a classic Chablis year,- says Macon-based Jean-Marie Guffens, who bought fruit from that vintage solely for a Les Clos - -I want them to know that I never again want to see a -classic- year like that! You had to choose between picking under-ripe or risking over-ripeness and rot. And to me Chablis under-ripe is ?- at which point he struck one of those elastic-faced grimaces that are a Guffens hallmark. (Naturally, his comment and gesture were directed inter alia at my own opinion!) Guffens described the summer of 2008 as -even worse than the summer of 2007,- but considered the upshot of 2008 incomparably better thanks to the balmy, breezy September weather, which permitted him to put off picking until September 26 - October 9, the wines reaching 13.5% potential (and finished) alcohol at the upper end, but generally hovering in the mid to upper 12s. No doubt influenced as well by growers- willingness to deal on price in 2008, Guffens rendered a considerable (not to mention exemplary) range of Chablis from this vintage; and his 2009 Chablis collection will be his largest-ever both in volume and diversity as well as, in his opinion, among his best. (Indeed, those 2009 wines were displaying a dimension of minerality and degree of nuance as well as vivacity from cask and tank in April that few of their vintage appeared likely to equal.)Importers include: Ideal Wine & Spirits, Medford, MA; tel. (617) 395-3300 and Vintner Select, Mason, OH; tel. (513) 229-3630