2008 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Bougros Grand Cru

A Riesling-reminiscent amalgam of fresh lime, white peach, chalk and salt marks the nose and palate of Fevre’s 2008 Chablis Bougros, which in a role reversal from vintage norms is firmer and adamantly more mineral than its 2007 counterpart. Its tactile, seemingly crystalline and pungently peppery sense of minerality and fruit skin chew folded into an almost sweetly ripe peachiness would be at home in Austria’s Wachau. Smoky, chalky, and alkaline notes add to a remarkable diversity that informs a dynamically interactive, energetic, intractable finish. Expect this to gain some depth if you wait a few years and to perform well for 8-10 if not longer. The 2008 collection fielded by Didier Seguier and his team maintains their recent streak of excellence, but in a reversal of vintage typicity, seems, if anything, more dominated by its acidity and minerality than the 2007s, and less effusive than many of its vintage. Between poor flowering and dehydration, the crop was down around 20% in 2008 even from that of its hail-trimmed predecessor. The wines as usual were racked from barrel after malo (which this year, meant in April); some were bottled during the summer but the grand crus and most of the premier crus were bottled last November and December. Several of the wines that I tasted (noted in the text, and of course labeled without the word “domaine”) incorporate purchased fruit, but beginning with this vintage, the Fevre team not only calls the shots but does the picking for all of the grapes that inform wines labeled with their name. Like Hugel in Alsace, Fevre has been impressed enough with the new generation of DIAM composite corks to adopt them for a majority of their bottlings, in fact with this vintage for everything save grand cru – so let’s hope their confidence is well-placed! It perhaps also bears repeating that in my opinion there isn’t a track record for aging yet that one can apply to Fevre’s last three collections, the quality having improved too much to extrapolate with any reliably from previous vintages, so please take my prognoses as intuitive hunches. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6706

Good pale yellow. Restrained aromas of fresh apricot, pineapple and spices; showed riper stone fruit notes as it opened in the glass. Sweet, tactile and elegantly styled, with strong acids framing and lifting the intense peach flavor. Already boasts a lovely fat texture and considerable pliancy but this wine really needs three or four years to express itself.

Aged 12-15 months on fine lees in oak. Broader on the palate than the Vaulorent but still pretty linear. Fresh, dusty, wet stones incarnate. Intense and long even though it is that bit fuller. (JH)