2011 Chablis Vaillons

The Dauvissat 2011 Chablis Vaillons offers a striking contrast with its Sechet sibling, evoking ocean spray, clam juices, and fresh lemon, infused with chalk and iodine. This feels firm yet buoyant. Toasted nut piquancy adds to the impressive sense of grip harbored by this, for its vintage, relatively austere and robust bottling, one that should be worth following through at least 2020. Vincent Dauvissat emphasizes the positive roll of rain in September, 2012: "it permitted fruit maturation to continue, and ameliorated acidity." The most vexing parts of the vintage, as he perceives it, were frost and mildew, and he has the low yields to show for the battle with them. Poor flowering, he acknowledges, had its positive sides in engendering loose, rot-resistant clusters and helping to insure that even in those vineyards not frosted, the crop was able to thoroughly ripen. Dauvissat was quick to point out that when it came to his two grand crus, 2011 represented another short crop, because those sites bloomed during a period of perturbing weather; whereas conditions turned favorable in the week that followed, in time for flowering in his premier cru and village-level sites. Harvest dates here were pretty typical: the first half of September in 2011, and the last week of September and first few days of October in 2012. Finished alcohols in 2012 range from 12.5%-13%; and a half a degree lower in 2011. Like me, Vincent Dauvissat thinks that many observers are misled by the youthfully generous and lightweight character of the 2011s into a false belief that they won't be worth cellaring. (That being noted, I hasten to add - chastised by prematurely oxidized bottles, including even a few from his hand - that my notion of felicitous aging involves a shorter temporal horizon than his.) 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.)

Pale, bright yellow. Aromas of white peach, oatmeal and iodiney oyster shell. The palate offers a captivating combination of sweet white peach and pineapple fruit and strong underlying minerality, along with a hint of vanilla. Turns more austere and dry on the long, stony finish. This is not obviously better than the Sechet.

Total harmony is what stands out most about the 2011 Chablis Vaillons. Here the fruit is richer, rounder and silkier. Overall this is a fairly open, expressive Vaillons that should drink well pretty much upon release. The intensity of the finish bodes well for the future. The sun-drenched exposure and clay-rich soils come through beautifully.