2014 Chablis Les Clos

Bottled in February 2016, the 2014 Chablis Grand Cru les Clos has a refined bouquet that as I mentioned last year, you could easily mistake for a Chardonnay from the Côte de Beaune. It is clean and precise, just a touch of flint giving away its Chablis origin. The palate is very well balanced with squeezed lime and citrus fruit on the entry, hints of dried orange peel, fine balance with a touch of spice lending it an almost Les Preuses-like personality on the finish. Enjoy this Les Clos over the next 8-10 years.

(all done in two-year-old foudres ): Good pale yellow. Very reduced, musky, complex aromas of silex , lime, fresh apricot, white nectarine, oyster shell and smoke; became more tangy as it opened in the glass. Big, ripe and rich; a large-scaled, voluptuous wine with terrific white peach intensity. Saline and dusty stone qualities give the finish terrific grip. Really rises inexorably and energizes the taste buds on the extremely long, tangy aftertaste. This wine is actually the highest in sugar of all of these 2014s at 1.8 grams per liter, but the balance here is nearly perfect.

(bottled in January): Pale, bright yellow. Fresh yellow peach, apricot, lemon and toast on the nose, accented by a subtle spearmint note and a whiff of oyster shell. Densely packed, intense, saline and penetrating; tightly wound yet somehow pliant, this wine offers considerable charm owing to its early balance and sweetness but is built for a graceful evolution. Superb, seamless wine with enlivening saline minerality carrying the finish and giving it terrific grip and lift.