2007 Chablis

The domaine-bottled Fevre 2007 Chablis – coming largely from old vines around the Vosgros in Chichee and the margins of nearby Montmains – is even more fusil, briny, and overtly chalky than the Champ Royaux bottling. With bright, bitter-sweet tangerine, grapefruit, and lemon with their rinds; caraway; and pungent herbs, this wine is grounded in formidable extract for generic Chablis and clings with impressively zesty and mineral persistence. It should show well for several years. Didier Seguier and his team have managed to follow up their amazing 2006s with an equally remarkable collection of 2007s (though he insists that 6 to 9 months after bottling – when I tasted them – “is the worst time for expressing the purity of fruit”!). Harvesting here began early, on September 6 – the earliest start on record save for 2003 – but without feeling any compunction about taking one’s time, Seguier emphasized. Even so, the task was completed in 11 days, harvesting fruit of impeccable ripeness and harmonious though prominent acidity at a time when many growers were wise not to have begun yet. Without question, the rigorous sorting that all of the grapes undergo here is among the keys to the purity and the transparency to nuance of these wines. As usual at this address, even when one reaches the roughly 80% level of barrique (none, new, though) a smell or taste of wood is the farthest thing from one’s mind. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6706