Rye toast and lemon rind, chalk dust and fusil oils scent Brocard’s 2011 Chablis Vieilles Vignes Domaine Sainte Claire, which comes to the palate quite richly textured yet buoyant (almost delicate) and infectiously juicy. Fresh lemon and tangerine with their zests serving for refreshment and invigoration in the long, exuberant, tangy and lip-smacking finish, to which scallop-like saline-sweetness adds irresistible saliva-inducement. In fact, the citric fruit component here contributes energy and structure while in a sort of role-reversal, it is the mineral and animal dimensions that supply sweet succulence. The longer you attend to this, the more subtle its mineral aspects, and frankly, I kept returning, lest I find that I had over-rated it in comparison with the corresponding premier crus. A fine value, it should remain alluring and delicious through at least 2016.
Julien Brocard reports unproblematic alcoholic fermentations and malo-lactic conversions in his 2012s, although the grand crus among them were not at a stage in elevage and assemblage that he felt permitted them to be assessed at the time of my June visit. The substantial subset of Brocard 2012 premier crus I tasted was determined by limitations of time; Brocard’s notion of wines that were at a perspicuous point in their elevage; and my choices of certain crus that I did not want to miss. Virtually all of the Brocard crus are now being farmed biodynamically and major inroads in that direction have been made with their village-level vineyards, too (most notably in the historical core of the family’s holdings that constitute the Domaine Sainte Claire). Julien Brocard is of the opinion that 2012 presented the sort of test in extremity that biodynamics at his domaine under-went as well in 2003, and that not only does this approach conduce to quality, but also to more regular yields. Yields from those vineyards that weren’t being biodynamically farmed, he reports, nosedived in both vintages while the others experienced only a small dip. Potential alcohol in 2012 was only slightly higher than in 2011, and nowadays most Brocard wines weigh-in well below 13%; but most of the sizeable share of 2011s I tasted – both the more exuberant among them, and some that were, for now at least, more restrained – share a disarming and delightful sense of levity. Vinificatory vessels at this address continue their nearly decade-long trend toward diversification, with larger barrels, full-fledged foudre and concrete eggs all supplementing the more prosaic stainless steel tanks and barriques. Incidentally, like Fevre, Brocard is now utilizing DIAM composite cork to stopper their wines, right up through grand cru.
Various importers, including: Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 642-5500, M.S. Walker, Sommerville, MA; tel. (617) 776-6700 and Verity Wine Partners, New York, NY; tel. (212) 683-8763
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