2006 Chablis Valmur
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Fevre’s 2006 Chablis Valmur represents a dramatically different expression of Chablis character from the Vaudesir. Peony, musk, marzipan, and candied lime are the key notes (along with hints of lanolin and spice) in this rich, sweetly-perfumed, almost confectionary wine. As with the corresponding Bougros, this exhibits an uncanny sense of lift and near-delicacy for all of its creaminess and amplitude. The pure, long finish is almost ethereal in its suggestions of heady flowers and delicate mineral shadings. This may well be the sort of Chablis some growers and critics have in mind when they say (as if that were to denigrate the wine) “tastes like Cote d’Or,” but if so (and I disagree with the characterization, anyway), I say “bring on more of the same!” Precisely the dramatic range of expression of which Chablis is capable even in a single vintage – and which this year’s Fevre collection so faithfully illustrates – is one of this region’s great strengths. Perhaps this Valmur should be drunk within a decade – a little sooner than some of the other Fevre 2006 crus – but I am sure only time will tell. Didier Seguier has presided over a remarkable surge in quality at this address during the past decade in which Henriot has owned Fevre. The wines are now every bit as impressive as the estate’s vast and superbly-situated acreage, not to mention uncannily consistent in quality. Somehow, Fevre has acquired a reputation in some quarters simply for their widespread use of oak. In fact – just as at the region’s other top addresses, Dauvissat and Raveneau – the wood here is nearly always discreet, and Seguier is keen to finish the elevage on most of his wines in tank once he deems them to have spent long enough in barrel. Hand-harvesting and two sorting tables help insure quality of fruit, and Seguier’s insistence that botrytis was unproblematic for him in either 2006 or 2005 is ably supported by the gustatory evidence. Fermentation was relatively rapid, he relates, and the malo-lactic transformation not especially profound, due to the dominance of ripe, tartaric acid in the fruit. With one exception, the grand cru wines (all of which are vinified ca. 80% in barrel) had just been prepped for bottling (including cross-flow filtration) when I tasted them, but that did not prevent them from showing brilliantly. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6706
Punteggi della critica
Punteggio medio
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Altre recensioni e punteggi
Pale, green-tinged yellow. Highly nuanced nose combines lime, licorice, stone and minerals. Densely packed and tight, but with compellingly ripe flavors of golden apple and pineapple leavening the wine's more strict mineral and citric side. Finishes with a wonderfully pliant texture and superb persistence, leaving behind a scent of menthol in the empty glass. For the connoisseur, notes director Follin-Arbelet.
More oaky on the nose, more creamy but still bright tight citrus. tightly mineral on the palate but also more woody. Very crisp, very young and tightly wound. (JH)
Exotic spice notes complicate the grapefruit and pineapple fruitiness on the nose; a bit less exuberant today than the Vaudesir, with hints of menthol and licorice. Then drier and more serious in the mouth, offering classic flavors of citrus peel, menthol, licorice and minerals. A very dense, fresh wine with a brisk, palate-staining back end. The crop level here was a very low 30 hectoliters per hectare, notes director Stephane Follin-Arbelet, who pointed out that although yields ranged from 30 to 50 hectoliters across the house's holdings in '06, most of the cru bottlings come from old vines affected by a good bit of crop-reducing coulure
Informazioni sul produttore
Established in the late 1950s, William Fèvre was one of the leaders in Chablis’s renaissance. Today he crafts benchmark expressions of fine Chardonnay from some of the top vineyard sites in the region, working with many of the best Premier and Grand Cru vineyards.