2008 Chablis Vaudesir

The Michel 2008 Chablis Vaudesir offers another rather Riesling-like performance, with lime zest, petrol, grapefruit, and fresh quince in the nose spilling over onto a luscious yet penetratingly bright, citric palate suffused with alkaline minerality and leading to a gripping, rather firm, almost severely citrus zest-, alkali-, iodine- and kelp-tinged finish. This retains a lot of CO2, and seems to be a bit reduced and/or struck by its recent bottling, but is still highly impressive, strikingly buoyant, incipiently transparent, and should gain in stature short term and be worth following for at least a decade. Metaphorically cool and uncannily marine, it would make a remarkable accompaniment to oysters. Expect it to be worth following for at least a decade. Jean-Loup Michel and Guillaume Cicqueau-Michel have rendered an exemplary collection of 2008s, with their tank-elevage seemingly capturing the exuberance and refreshment of the vintage without paying any significant price in terms of depth and complexity. I suspect that the team’s reliance exclusively on spontaneous fermentation this year might well have contributed significantly to their success. Of course, I do not imagine based on ideology – much less insist – that spontaneous fermentation is always superior, just as I try to avoid any over-simplification of complex viticultural and vinificatory issues. In fact, I strongly suspect that it is the considerable extent of machine harvesting and exclusively tank upbringing of Louis Michel wines that leads many commentators to incompletely appreciate the consistently high level of quality that has since long before 2008 emanated from this address. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802