Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Dauvissat

1996 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest
Pretty good. What I was worried might be oxidation, Eric clarified as something else, a bit of botrytis. That’s kind of interesting and I wonder if this is common in what people perceive as oxidized white Burgundy. Is all the later harvesting in the Côte d’Or contributing to rising levels of botrytis in the vineyards which the vignerons do not know how to handle? This led to a discussion of Thevenets wines and how they are able to manage the botrytis so elegantly. Always enlightening spending time with Eric.

2000 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest
A good bottle of this. Perhaps less bright and stone fruited than I would have wanted, but a good bottle nonetheless. I’d suggest going ahead and digging in. I think I liked this better a few years ago.

Is this what we’ve come to? I don’t mind drinking my chardonnay on the early side, I like the tension and the acids, but it seems to me that Chablis from top vintages from top producers need to be enjoyed for their youthful vigor rather than their tertiary qualities? If that is the case, maybe we’ll see prices drop to reflect this new reality.

3 comments:

TWG said...

Your reasoning seems backward on pricing. Welcome back but what's the catalyst for Sharon?
And by the way tell Yixin to call the dogs off!

Florida Jim said...

Had a 2000 Raveneau, Montee the other night that was wonderful. Maybe that's too young by those wanting tertiary development but Diane, myself and another woman that tried the wine all said it ruined us for any other wine that night.
And I have had both of those Dauvissats - neither thrilled me but the 2000 was much the better, IMO.
I like good Chablis young - or at least before the 3-5, 5-10, 10-20 year standards (village, premier, grand) I read about.
And honestly, Chablis is just about it when it comes to chardonnay - very occasionally a Beaune, but not often.
Best, Jim

Unknown said...

Without question botrytis is playing a part in what some people call premoxed Chablis. '04 is an excellent example. Many were sounding an alarm about premox within 3 years of the vintage. What they were tasting was the botrytis, which in '04 is feature of the vintage in Chablis.

I used to wonder why I had such better luck with a small percentage of spoiled bottles, from oxidation, TCA, brett, etc.