Aged one-quarter in barrels (with some new), the Droin 2007 Chablis Montee de Tonnerre marries the flintiness of the site with wood-related toasted nut and resin for a pungent nose. Citrus rind bitterness and faint heat fit the wine’s slightly oily and palpably high-extract palate, reflecting the hail and low yields that prevailed in this site. There is spicy and zesty finishing intensity and lots of overall energy, but I’m tempted to implicate overt notes from barrel in drying up primary juiciness. Or might I have tasted this at an inopportune moment? In striking contrast with the experience of most of his colleagues, Benoit Droin’s 2007s were very slow to begin – much less complete – their malolactic transformations. Droin believes in the potential of machine harvesting in a majority of his vineyards, even in a year with hail, and the bottled results once again point up the foolishness of glib generalizations such as abound on that particular subject. That said, the potential weak spot in some of his 2007s – perhaps due to much-reduced yields, perhaps to hail per se, and a feature to which some tasters will certainly be more sensitive than others – is their tendency toward bitterness. These wines weighed-in in the low 13s natural alcohol, a bit higher than the vintage norm. Importer: Eric Solomon Selections, Charlotte, NC; tel. (704) 358-1565