This is fleshy, wrapping a lush texture around apple, lemon cake and stone flavors. Intense and long, this needs time to find balance. Drink now through 2024. 5,000 cases made, 1,000 cases imported.??–BS??Region: France / Burgundy / Chablis Select to Add

A mix of apricot, orange Creamsicle, lemon pie and stone flavors ply the creamy texture. Balanced, this expands on the finish. Drink now through 2020. 5,000 cases made, 1,000 cases imported.??–BS??Region: France / Burgundy / Chablis Select to Add

Smoky, with some carbonic gas adding to the firm structure of this lemon-infused white. The balance leans toward the acidity. Decant now or cellar for a year or two. Best from 2017 through 2023. 5,000 cases made, 1,000 cases imported.??–BS??Region: France / Burgundy / Chablis Select to Add

The 2012 Chablis 1er Cru Vau de Vey is raised entirely in stainless steel like the Montmains. Julien told me that it is this vineyard that has reacted the most positively toward biodynamic vineyard husbandry. It has a hint of popcorn and almond on the well-defined bouquet that is more expressive than the Montmains at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp acidity, touches of dried apricot and lemon curd with a nicely composed, elegant finish. This is one of Brocard's best premier crus this year. Drink now-2020. I arrived in Jean-Marc Brocard's winery with an ominous storm brewing on the horizon and hurried inside before the imminent deluge. In this capacious winery I met Julien Brocard, accompanied by cellar-master Odile Van der Moere. Julien explained the history of the winery based in Prehy that started from a single hectare owned by his father-in-law Emile Petit in the early 1970s. This was back in the days when land was far cheaper and Credit Agricole gave many young aspiring winemakers a helping financial hand. There's a bit more than one hectare under vine nowadays, with a successful negociant business running alongside. Its size has not stopped this producer from applying Rudolf Steiner's tenets in the vineyard. "We started with biodynamics in 1997 because I wanted to understand more about the diseases, to understand the causes," he explained. "There are around 200 hectares in total, of which half is organic or biodynamic, though they are processes that we are still learning about. We buy in a little fruit for the regional wines and some for the grand crus, except for Les Preuses, which is our own vineyard. We use natural yeasts and never force the malolactic." Julien told me that the 2012 crop was picked from September 26 until around October 12. I have been tasting Brocard's wines in the UK for a number of years and find that they tend to be rather laconic in their youth and repay those willing to cellar for three of four years, testified by a couple of older bottles that I tasted after the 2012s. (Readers should note the discrete significance of the labels. Those sporting a ladybird are organic and those with the moon are biodynamic.) Importer: several regional importers Verity Wine Partners (NY), Susan Chambers (LA), Elite Wine (Washington) and Berkmann Wine Cellars in UK.

Apple, grapefruit and lime on the nose and the exuberantly juicy, buoyant palate of Brocard’s 2011 Chablis Vau de Vey acquire intriguing complexity from iodine and stone, salt and peat, in a finish of vibrant interactivity. I would expect this to reward attention through at least 2017. 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