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2007 Dauvissat Chablis Forest

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Year: 2007 Appellation: Chablis Country: France Burghound Rating: 92 CellarTracker Rating: 91.6	$59.99
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Tasting note: A cool, reserved and sophisticated nose based on the mineral reduction that is so prevalent in classically styled Chablis along with citrus, oyster shell and algae notes, all of which continue onto the almost painfully intense flavors supported by a vibrant, firm and explosive finish that goes on and on. I really like the beautiful underlying tension that gives the finish a real sense of energy and the balance here is essentially perfect. Note that this is very young and primary but possesses excellent cellar potential. Burghound 92 Producer note: The always direct Vincent Dauvissat candidly calls 2007 a "miraculous and completely unexpected vintage. The summer was quite cool and generally wet with not one, not two, not three but four hail storms and often in the same section, particularly Vaillons. Not surprisingly, there was some rot and a bit of mildew and by the end of August, I was definitely worried about what we might end up with in terms of raw materials because I honestly wasn't very hopeful. Then, as has been the case in the last few vintages, September effectively saved the harvest with both dry and sunny if not especially warm weather and the north wind, which dried out the remaining moisture, concentrated the grapes and stopped the rot in its tracks. We began picking on the 11th of September and brought in relatively clean grapes with potential alcohols that ranged between 12 and 12.5%, which I attribute to the concentrating effects of the wind. The wind worked its magic on the acidity as well because each day that we picked, the grapes went up in acidity rather than down as is usually the case. Except for the Petit Chablis, which I did not touch, I chaptalized between .25 and .4% and the primary fermentations went off without a hitch. The malos were slightly longer than usual though I regard that as a positive rather than a negative as the wines can slowly go through their élevage without adding much in the way of sulfur. In terms of the wines, the most recent vintage that 2007 resembles is perhaps 2004 and if we go back in time a bit, it's perhaps like 1979." The Dauvissat, as the scores and commentaries suggest, are brilliant across the board, particularly at the grand cru level though the La Forêst and Vaillons absolutely merit your attention as well. The domaine's 2006's have also turned out about as previewed last year though I have extended the initial drinking windows by about one year. In this same vein, Dauvissat noted that he remains just as optimistic about their potential evolution as he was last year. Readers may remember that Dauvissat compared them to the 1989s, nothing that those wines have aged well and the 2006's should too. The Dauvissat '06s are certainly not classic, say as in the style of the 2007s but they are delicious and of generally very high quality. That said, in my view, the Dauvissat '07s are easily better than either 2005 or 2006.