Herbed chicken stock laced with fresh lemon juice lend the generic Drouhin Vaudon 2011 Chablis an aura as unique to its region as it is delightful. There are levity, clarity and refreshment here that I missed from the corresponding 2012, and the subtle salinity as well as carnal note makes for mouthwatering savor even if the sheer length of flavors is but modest. Most of the fruit for this bottling is sourced from assorted 30-40-year-old clonal selections planted behind the grand crus. Enjoy it through 2015.
The still delightfully rustic, old-fashioned, very discreetly-marked Moulin de Vaudon in Chichee that Robert Drouhin purchased in the 1960s as an act of faith in Chablis’s revival, and the vineyards he assembled scattered throughout that region, have been the under the eye of Loire-born Regisseur Denis Mery since 1990, while Frederic Drouhin nowadays sees to vinification. Mery emphasizes how lucky he is to have had his earliest training with the Gambier family in Bourgueil “because they were pre-chemical and I learned the ancient methods and vine treatments from them.” Today the Drouhin estate’s vines are biodynamically farmed and hand-manicured by a full-time crew of 24 – the grand crus and the Vaudesir with horse – and Mery was proud to show me his meticulously-kept viticultural records as well as the Drouhin Vaudon old vine holdings in Les Clos, which visitors will find a strikingly contrast to those of their immediate neighbors. As evidence of Mery’s creative, old-is-young-again anachronism, he has even planted a tiny stand near his home in Milly en echalas – i.e. trained to solo poles in the manner still familiar from Cote Rotie or the Mosel. Mery doesn’t deny that 2012 – when he began picking already the 19th of September – posed special challenges to biodynamic growers; and the results here – occasionally hinting at the botrytis to which he testified – are mixed. Finished alcohols are in the 13.5% range, a tad higher than at many properties, and the vivacity and cut so familiar from 2012 tend not to be prominent. The 2011s here are much more expressive up to the level of grand cru, at which point I perceive barrel interference discussed in my tasting notes on those wines.
Importer: Dreyfus-Ashby & Co., New York, NY; tel. (212) 818 0770
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