In striking contrast to last year’s rendition, which was in new cask, Brocard’s 2007 Chablis Les Preuses, was largely fermented in a small cement “egg” of a sort that has recently become quite fashionable, with a small portion having gone into barrique. This smells fascinatingly and site-typically of scallop, musky floral perfume, and citrus. Faint, detached notes of lanolin and resin do not detract too much from that fascination. On the palate, it is as lush as any wine in the Brocard 2007 collection, with its oiliness and persistence of musky floral notes making for a sultry – some might even say “kinky” – seduction. I would not leave it out of sight for very long, but monitor its evolution in the course of 2010 before drawing further conclusions about any longer-term potential.Enologist Nadine Gublin (also of Domaine Jacques Prieur) is now heading the team here, although I can’t claim that any change in style was noticeable to me after only one vintage, a vintage that certainly inherently contributed to the less than forthcoming nature of many of these wines, as well as to greater irregularity in quality than those of 2006. I found myself less satisfied with this year’s grand cru bottlings as a group – after being puzzled by how several of the 2006s showed at a comparable stage, too – than I was with those of ostensibly lesser pedigree. A majority of the acreage controlled by Brocard is now being farmed biodynamically, and Julien Brocard suggests he may soon set some sort of record for surface area under such a regimen.Imported by: Martine’s Wines, Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400
