2008 Chablis Les Forets

Cool green-fruit aromas with a sherbet note. Solid texture and so rich and dense it almost seems sweet. (JR)

Rene Dauvissat’s 2008 Chablis La Forest achieves a remarkably vibrant sense of interplay and complexity characteristic both for its vintage and for this cuvee at its best. Scents of iris, white truffle, crushed chalk, saline-alkaline ocean breeze, tart plum, white peach and grapefruit all have their counterparts in a palate performance of riveting interactivity and prodigious yet continually fascinating length. There is a firm feel, brightness, and in the end a tendency for its mineral aspects to slightly dominate this show that result in a sparer impression than the corresponding 2007, something of a reversal of these vintage’s normal roles. Once again, here is an exceptional Chablis premier cru that should be worth following for a dozen or more years. Vincent Dauvissat points out that at least at his estate, 1996 was at once more severe yet more alcoholic and more exotic in aroma than what he terms the “more classic” vintage of 2008. Both years featured long cool growing seasons and wind-driven concentration in the late innings, but the fruit in 2008 was cleaner, and entirely botrytis-free, Dauvissat maintains. He says his 2008s come closer in character to 2002. (Incidentally, at age six months, Dauvissat’s 2009s showed promising vivacity and mineral inflection for their vintage.) Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802 (Under the “Dauvissat-Camus” label, certain of these wines are also imported by Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; tel. (781) 352 1100.)

Bright, pale golden-yellow. Sexy aromas of orange, honeysuckle, hazelnut and toast. Big, silky, rich and deep but not especially showy today as its stony minerality currently dominates the palate. A downright profound premier cru with outstanding persistence. It will be interesting to taste this next to the superb '07 in about eight years.