Daniel-Etienne Defaix Comments on the Use of Oak

A recent article from Agrisalon.com highlights Daniel-Etienne Defaix's opinion on the use of oak in Chablis (or rather, his abhorrence of the practice). I will try to translate the key passages and repost my comments here in a couple of days. In the mean time, if you do read French, visit the link here for a nice, quick read...

2006 Chablis from Christian Moreau Pere et Fils

"Here is our first report after harvest 2006 that ended September 25th.We had a fast flowering period in the middle of June which lasted only 8days in most parcels and was the cause of some" coulure"and "millerandage".The end of June and the month of July was really hot and the vineyard suffered from such heat and the lack of water. But August was a rainy month and the vines recovered nicely from that period of dryness.The grapes analysis at the beginning of September showed that we could expect another early harvest. Our "sleepy" syndicate met only onSeptember15th to declare the"ban des vendanges" on that day. Many vine growers asked for derogation at the INAO. We finally started September 16th with our picking team for 9 days in the best possible weather. At the final stage of maturation, the natural alcohol level was between 11°9 and 13°2 for certain parcel, the acidity is way better than expected.In fact we have a well balanced juice which is so important for the life of a vine.At this moment October 8th we can already taste green fruit and see a good minerality. But time will tell what vintage we will have, one thing for sure it wont be bad !!! "

2006 Chablis from Domaine Bernard Defaix - A Very Succesful Harvest

"After a terrible month of August, the good weather and the sun came back in September preparing a very good vintage. Thanks notably to lower rainfall in Chablis than in the rest of Burgundy, the sanitary state of the crop was perfect and the maturity rather early.
In Rully, we have began harvesting on Monday 18th of September with a team about fifteen pickers.The hail falled at mid-August unfortunaltely caused some damages. So we have invested in a sorting table which was very usefull to keep only the best grapes. On the whites, we have eliminated about 20% of the volume. For the reds, we have reached 40%. This reason comes from the maceration: because of the prolonged contact between the juice and the solids of the grapes, the quality of the crop you put in the tank must be perfect.For Chablis, the harvest began on Wednesday 20th of September with a perfect sanitary state, very good potential alcohol content and acidities closed to the ones we have had last year. So, very logically, the vintage 2006 should be directly in line with the 2005!"

2006 Chablis from the Union des Grands Crus de Chablis

"Le débourrement s'est fait mi-avril, et il n'y a pas eu de gelées de printemps. La floraison était assez irrégulière et s'est déroulée du 9 au 17 juin. Les mois de juin et juillet était chauds et secs, suivi d'un mois d'août frais et pluvieux. Grâce à ce temps frais, l'état sanitaire du vignoble était excellent. Le beau temps est revenu début septembre, et le ban de vendanges était fixé au 16 septembre. le rendement de la récolte est moyen, voir faible, avec une acidité correcte et un degré naturel suffisant. Les premières dégustations annoncent des vins d'une grande pureté et une belle finesse aromatique. "

2006 Chablis from Romain Bouchard

"Les vendanges 2006 du Domaine Pascal Bouchard ont débuté le samedi 16 septembre et se sont achevées le mercredi 27 septembre. La qualité est au rendez-vous avec des degrés naturels (alcool potentiel) compris entre 12 et 13%. Les rendements sont modérés: 32 hl/ha de moyenne dans les Chablis Grands Crus, 50 hl/ha dans les Premiers Crus, 58 hl/ha dans les Chablis et Petit Chablis. L'état sanitaire des raisins était excellent et nous n'avons pas constaté de pourriture. Cette année encore, une équipe d'une trentaine de vendangeurs (voir photo) a récolté nos Chablis Grands Crus, Chablis Premiers Crus et les vignes du Domaine de la Grande Chaume (Romain Bouchard)."

More 2006 Chablis from Drouhin

"At Domaine Joseph Drouhin, picking was not as spread out in time: it took place in 15 days only as opposed to three weeks normally. At the Drouhin Domaine in Chablis, we started harvesting before the date of the ban (fixed for September 23rd) and, what’s even more unusual, before the whites of Côte d’Or! The grapes were excellent but beginning to get too concentrated in maturity. Hence the decision to pick right away in order to preserve and emphasize the fruit and freshness expected of Chablis."

"Whites:Quality is very good throughout, from Mâcon to Chablis. The balance between alcohol and acidity is satisfactory. Lurking in the background is a whole gamut of pretty aromas, slightly less intense than 2005. This shows good promise!"

Joseph Drouhin: Chablis Harvest Begins

July has been extremely hot, August cool and rainy, and we thought both months would compensate to allow us to harvest around September 23rd. Actually, the humidity contained in the soil combined with the nice weather we enjoyed early September, favoured the maturity.We will begin harvesting next week, probably on Wednesday 20th. In Chablis, the ripening process has been fairly quick and we have already started picking in some early vineyards of low charge. To our knowledge, it is the first time that harvesting in our Chablis vineyards begins before in Côte d'Or. The main start will be on September 18th.

Winesofchablis.com Experimental Search Feature

I added Google SiteSearch to the front page of the web site today. I'm not particularly thrilled about how it fits in to the site design at this time, but I want to give it a try before I do any significant redesigns. I like the way it works to some degree, but it only picks up pages that Google has spidered so far, a huge minus. Google has, as of today, crawled 71 pages on WinesOfChablis.com; there are at least twice that many tasting note pages alone. Nevertheless, it is a quick fix to the site's need be able to quickly find information on your favorite Chablis wines, vineyards and domaines.

Mysteries of the land - Epicure - Entertainment - theage.com.au

Article discusses terroir from an Australian's standpoint and features Vega Sicilia (Spain) and William Fevre (Chablis).

Mysteries of the land - Epicure - Entertainment - theage.com.au: "Take Chablis. How does the taste of the soil, and not just the soil itself but a solidified mass of 160-million-year-old oyster fossils that holds the soil together, come to express itself so clearly in a glass of chardonnay?"

Frederic Gueguen / Domaine des Chenevieres releases l'Homme Mort

In 2003, Frederic Gueguen, son-in-law of Jean-Marc Brocard, purchased Domaine des Chenevieres from the retiring Bernard Tremblay and began production out of Brocard's cellars. The vines are REALLY old, with a lot of them going back to the 1920's. Included were fairly small parcels in both la Fourchuame and l'Hommer Mort. Fourchaume is considered an appellation de commericalisation and wines from the climats l'Homme Mort, Fourchaume, Vaulorents, Vaupulents and Cote de Fontenay can all be called Fourchaume or bottled separately under their own name. The team at Brocard was wavering for a while on how they were going to handle it - whether they'd blend the l'Homme Mort and Fourchuame together and just bottle it as Fourchaume or two different wines - l'Homme Mort and Fourchaume.

Well, they just released Frederic Gueguen/Domaine des Chenvieres 2005 Chablis 1er Cru l'Homme Mort, so I guess the question has been settled. This is pretty much what I expected given the fact that they bottle along the lines of 15 different Chablis, A.C. bottlings as well at Brocard. This makes Domaine des Chenevieres one of only 4 producers to make l'Homme Mort: Chateu de Maligny (who owns by far the most), la Chablisienne and A & F Boudin are th others.

(Of course this probably won't stop merchants from erroneously selling Boudin's as the only l'Homme Mort made, something they have been doing for years despite the fact that it is completely fictitious. Not to mention that Boudin's comes from a parcel that is south-facing and in a warm valley, a fact that makes the wine's terroir completely different from the remaining 90% of the vineyard and hence, atypical for the vineyard.)

2006 Vintage Update from Maison Lamblin et fils

Maison Lamblin et flis reports:

"If the 2006 vintage was slightly late in bud burst, this has been partially compensated for by a very rapid flowering, aided by the sudden arrival of exceptionally high temperatures in the middle of June. Since flowering, the progressive rise in temperatures has accelerated the rhythm and fruit set was observed in mid July. Thunderstorms at the end of the month have provided some refreshment, but we are still hoping for a more generous watering of the vines which are beginning to suffer slightly. The coming weeks will be decisive for the future development of the vines."

For more information on Maison Lamblin, visit www.lamblin.com.