2007 Chablis Montmains

Comprising fruit from Les Forets, Bouts des Butteaux, and true Montmains, the Fevre 2007 Chablis Montmains (raised in a 60:40 ratio of tank to barrel) highlights peach, orange, kelp, and oyster shell. Its oiliness of texture reinforces the impression of richness, while a prominent salinity among its diverse mineral shadings lends lip-smacking invigoration to a sustained, bright, austerely dry finish. This offers an uncanny sense of liquefied stone and shells such as one scarcely ever encounters outside of the Auxerre. As Seguier explains it, the high-elevation and clay-rich Marnes soil of Butteaux – which makes up nearly half of this cuvee – promotes pronounced acidity, extract, and above all overt mineral characteristics. But these soils, especially at this altitude, are much slower to warm, so control of yields and later harvest are critical. This beauty should merit at least 6-8 years of attention. A non-estate Montmains, not sold in the U.S., shared some of this wine’s mineral character but was broader and far less concentrated or focused. 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