2014 Chablis Les Clos

The 2014 Chablis Grand Cru les Clos has a much more expressive bouquet than the 2015, with beautiful orange blossom and smoky scents decorating the nose. The palate is very well balanced and so saline in the mouth that you almost want to reach for your bucket and spade. This Les Clos is so seductive and so harmonious, seeming to bloom and deliver fabulous intensity on the finish. Whereas Valmur is the pick in 2015, the Les Clos might be the pick in 2014, thanks to its sense of completeness. But as I mentioned in my remarks from barrel last year, patience will be paramount for those seeking to witness this Chablis at its peak.

Pale, green-tinged color. Lemon, lime, white pepper and herbs on the pristine nose. Penetrating and backward, showing a tactile, tightly chiseled character to the citrus peel and saline flavors. This strikingly taut, dry, citrussy Clos reminded me of a top 2010. Still amazingly tight and built for a long evolution in bottle.

Completely closed on the nose following the Valmur, hinting at citrus peel, yellow plum, wild herbs and toast. At once dense and weightless, delivering painful cut to its penetrating flavors of stony minerality, citrus peel and anise. There's no way into this impenetrable, imploded wine today. Best today on the juicy, building finish, which saturates the palate with musky oyster-shell minerality, licorice and grapefruit zest. With its extraordinary solidity and cut, this potentially great wine really calls for a decade of cellaring and should be very long-lived.