I tasted Dauvissat’s 2008 Chablis Les Clos assembled from tank very shortly before bottling, where it demonstrated a remarkably dense yet buoyant layering of citrus, quince, white peach, and formidably concentrated chalk, oyster shell, and iodine minerality. Citrus rind, quinine and fruit pit bitterness help extend a cleansing, gum-adhering, electrically charged, practically searing finish that foreshadows at least 15 years of glory, provided premature oxidation does not lay it low, something no one can predict, and which the track record at this address renders unlikely but unfortunately by no means unthinkable. About the prowess of this wine over the next half dozen years, though, as well as about that of Les Clos the site, I am left in no doubt by my present experience.
Vincent Dauvissat points out that at least at his estate, 1996 was at once more severe yet more alcoholic and more exotic in aroma than what he terms the “more classic” vintage of 2008. Both years featured long cool growing seasons and wind-driven concentration in the late innings, but the fruit in 2008 was cleaner, and entirely botrytis-free, Dauvissat maintains. He says his 2008s come closer in character to 2002. (Incidentally, at age six months, Dauvissat’s 2009s showed promising vivacity and mineral inflection for their vintage.)
Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802 (Under the “Dauvissat-Camus” label, certain of these wines are also imported by Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; tel. (781) 352 1100.)
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