2008 Chablis Les Clos
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Tasting notes
The 2008 Chablis Grand Cru Clos is the purists' choice, unfurling in the glass with a classy bouquet of tangerine, lemon oil, oyster liquor and beeswax. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, elegantly glossy and incisive, built around a bright line of acidity that still imparts more tension and energy than is to be found in the 2010 vintage tasted alongside, but it has plenty of concentration and flesh on its structural bones, too. This is a powerful but precise rendition of Les Clos that is still only entering adolescence.
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
David Schildknecht, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Bright green-yellow. Reduced but multifaceted nose offers nuances of oyster shell, chlorophyll, menthol, white flowers, quinine and pineapple; this reminded me of a gin and tonic. Then remarkably full for young Clos, with extremely youthful yet broad, even fat, fruit and mineral flavors that saturate the palate without leaving any impression of weight. Most impressive today on the pure finish, which mounts inexorably and lingers for a minute or more. A great example of this vintage in the way it combines minerality and acidity with an utterly seamless texture. And of course it doesn't hurt that this great grand cru site combines some of the best characteristics of Le Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne.
(in tank) Pale, bright yellow. Knockout nose combines grapefruit, underripe pineapple, flowers, spices and powdered stone: classic Clos. Then rich, dense and superconcentrated, with a tight, intense core of grapefruit, pineapple and mineral flavors lifted by a floral element. Offers an uncanny combination of sucrosite and buffering acidity. The ripe and utterly edge-free finish saturates the palate with flavor and goes on and on.
This too is impressively pure and cool with an airy mix of floral, spice, mineral reduction and iodine notes merging seamlessly into gorgeously intense and almost aggressively stony medium-bodied flavors that exude a subtle sense of harmony, indeed this is Zen-like on the balanced and lingering finish. Allen Meadows, Burghound, Oct01,2009.