Long-Depaquit’s 2008 Chablis Preuses displays a warmer, richer personality than their other grand crus of the vintage, offering a site-typically elusive and alluring sense of savory scallop as well as salt, iodine, and alkali. Lusciously juicy mixed citrus offers a perfect medium for the mineral mysteries to present themselves, along with fruit pit bitterness on a waxen-textured palate. The youthfulness of vines may partly be betrayed in a finish whose bitter element tends to dominate; still, one can’t argue with this wine’s intrigue or its sheer persistence, and there is a certain sense of levity that I miss in its stable mates. I would anticipate following it for 6-8 years. The Long-Depaquit 2008 grand crus were bottled already in January, though had I not known this I might have been tempted to ascribe their firmness and at times somewhat muted flavors in April to post-bottling shock. Seemingly aware of their potential for austerity, Long-Depaquit director Matthieu Mangenot indicated that he quite actively worked the lees of his young 2008s.Various importers, including Arborway Imports, Lexington, MA; tel. (781) 862-0515 and Bayfield Importing, Long Island, NY (718) 482-0200