Pollux Membership April 2022: Not That Chablis Guy, The Other One and A Rant on Vintages
“Not that Chablis Guy, the Other One”
Domaine Jean Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru “Cote de Lechet”, Burgundy, France 2018
The region of Burgundy, to include the northern environs of Chablis, is one built on families and tradition, and as a newcomer one of the quirks of learning Burgundy that can vacillate quickly from mildly humorous to totally exasperating is the preponderance of repeated names-both for vineyards and producers who tend to them. Nearly every Burgundy village has a vineyard containing the word “perrieres” (traditionally a type of stone used in constructing the waist-high walls around some vines). As far as wine-producing names go, it’s easy to see that this world-class region producing some of the most exclusive Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs on the planet doesn’t exactly encourage a property’s heirs skipping town-eye the top producers of most villages and you’ll frequently find brothers, cousins, and sons all making wine at separate properties. Over the last few decades, as many Burgundy estates continue to be parceled out from their original holdings, whether due to the fusing or the fracturing of the families in question, more individual domaines have come into play, making for a fun game of “I’ve got a bottle of X”, “This X?”, “No that X” to be played by conversing Burgundy fanatics, a very particular type of wine geek which (polite disclaimer) you stand a reasonable chance of becoming once you take your first sip of a well-made one.
In Chablis, the outermost post of the Burgundy realm that is closer in distance to Paris than to the fabled Cote d’Or, the family name Dauvissat is hard to miss. There are no less than five different families with the surname in Chablis, and four of the five are confusingly producing and selling their own wines. Surely the most famous of the bunch is Vincent Dauvissat, the scion of high-quality Chablis whose bottles routinely sell above $100 at the village level, with the Grand Cru holdings coming in just under four times that number on most websites. It was with that name in mind that a wholesaler colleague of mine, upon a recent visit to the GWC offices, took one look at the cases I’d purchased with the name Dauvissat on them and mistakenly thought that I’d started a wine company with my non-existent legacy inheritance. I had to stop and correct him that it wasn’t THAT Dauvissat, but rather Domaine Jean Dauvissat and its current proprietor, Jean’s grandson Fabien.
As ubiquitous as “next generation changes winery for the better” stories are becoming in the wine world, I don’t tire of telling them in the least. Even in 2022, we are still hearing about wineries where past patriarchal figures still carried on with tired techniques like machine harvesting and pesticide sprays. Such was the case when Fabien Dauvissat took over his family’s domaine in 2009; he immediately halted the practice of chemical usage and began organic viticultural practices (today, Fabien has applied for Demeter certification as soon as the time requirements of maintaining biodynamic practices are satisfied). He hired a team to work the vines (currently ten full-time employees) who, among other biodiverse activities, plow the fields by horse rather than machine and have planted various vegetables in and around the vineyard. Perhaps the most admirable practice Fabien has brought to his family’s property is yield control-how much wine he produces from the plants he has to work with. One of my favorite soap box topics in the whole of the wine industry, the idea of overseeing how much fruit is produced has become arguably the most important barometer of quality in the modern world of wine, and the employment of tactics such as green harvesting during the growing season, double and triple assortments at harvest time, and working to keep older vines thriving and producing small quantities of highly concentrated juice are in my experience just as important as how ecologically (or not) the winery chooses to work. A quick math check on Domaine Jean Dauvissat reveals an annual production that tops out at 5,000 cases in total for all of their 22ha of vines, meaning that on average the winery’s yields are less than 21 hectoliters per hectare. To put that in perspective, the legal maximum for the Chablis Grand Cru appellation is a robust 54hl/ha, meaning Fabien is pulling in on average well under half of that. Riper, more concentrated fruit is a must in this cooler-climate winemaking region, particularly when said fruit is coming from one of my favorite Chablis Premier Cru vineyards, Cote de Lechet.
Conventional wisdom has it that the Chablis vineyards on the north and east side of the Serein river have the advantage; after all, all 7 Chablis Grand Cru vineyards are located there, and most of the vineyards on that side have both increased elevation and a south or southwest exposure that allows for all-day sunshine, critical in this region that is still susceptible to frost damage despite the effects of climate change. The equalizer for 1er Cru vineyards like Cote de Lechet that lie on the other side of the river with east-facing exposure is the aforementioned work in the vineyards and cellar; harvesting optimally ripe grapes at their most concentrated will give these vineyards enough staying power in the fruit to balance the ripping acidity the Chardonnay achieves; the famous Kimmeridgian clay soil (present like the swipe of a paintbrush in a band of terrain from Sancerre in the Loire Valley up to Chablis) is present in Cote de Lechet, and the pebbly, porous soil keeps moisture draining and vines searching ever deeper into the ground for nourishment. Fabien’s choice of extended aging on the fine lees (spent yeasts left over from fermentation) provides a creamy textural note that further takes the edge off the mineral elements and makes for a balanced, pure Chablis. Tasting with pleasure the 2018 Cote de Lechet, it is evident to me that Fabien Dauvissat’s wines are progressing on a remarkable path, and that although he doesn’t have Grand Cru Chablis holdings, his winemaking quality and terrific value signify he won’t have to be “the OTHER Dauvissat” anymore-D.
Domaine Jean Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru Cote de Lechet 2018
Country of Origin: France
Location: The Cote de Lechet vineyard is located on the west side of the Serein river just above the village of Milly, and is one of the more prominent 1er Cru vineyards on the left bank. Although the soil type is certainly a bit different, it mirrors the latitude of the Les Clos Grand Cru and the southeasterly exposure of Blanchot Grand Cru on the opposite bank. The southeast exposition does not make for all-day sunshine, which is both a challenge and a beautiful foil to the more fleshy south-westerly Grand Cru vineyards about a mile to the east. The Cote de Lechet vines of Jean Dauvissat are approaching 40 years in age.
Soil: The domaine’s parcel of Cote de Lechet is sandy-dominated with interspersed bits of the famous Kimmeridgian in the subsoil.
Grape Varieties: 100% Chardonnay.
Winemaking: Fabien Dauvissat’s farming is organic with biodynamic practices (basically, if the vintage allows him to be full-on bio, he is; otherwise he uses sustainable vineyard treatments). The Chardonnay grapes are sorted and gently pressed before a temperature-controlled steel tank fermentation using naturally-occurring yeasts. The wine carries out the secondary malolactic fermentation and the aging in these same tanks. The use of sulfur is at its most minimal (just for stabilization) and is applied in accordance with the biodynamic calendar for sustainability.
Aging: Fabien nurtures the wine in the steel tanks, on the spent yeasts from fermentation (lees) for 18-24 months. The wine is not fined and undergoes a light filtration solely for visual clarity.
Flavors and Foods: Fabien Dauvissat’s winemaking choices allow the Cote de Lechet to do one of my favorite things in the world of wine: let Chardonnay be Chardonnay. When not overly oaked or greedily harvested, Chardonnay is TROPICAL, and the scents of pineapple and honeydew melon are echoed on what is a decidedly acid-driven palate, with the fruits fusing easily to stony mineral and oyster liquor notes. Seafood and shellfish pairings are not original certainly with Chablis, but the Cote de Lechet is begging for them just the same-east coast oysters with their more briny flavors are great, and should you be in the market for seafood tower-type offerings, king crab legs or chilled lobster would also be great because of the roundness on the palate of the wine, derived from the lees aging. Cooked fish and shellfish options of clams casino or pan-seared scallops round out my short list.
Storage and Cellar: The Jean Dauvissat Cote de Lechet 2018 is an non-fruit-centric wine; meaning that for me if it is overly chilled (down to fridge temp, say) you will lose the important tropical notes mentioned above. Ideal temperature for me would be around 50-52 degrees from a wine fridge, or more easily pulled from a refrigerator about 30-45 minutes early and let stand in the room. The fresh, acidic drive to the 2018 will ensure its cellaring potential, and the wine can last for another 3-5 years and be in top form.
“A Rant on Vintages”
Chateau Lanessan, Haut-Medoc, Bordeaux, France 2008
A night I’ll never forget in my sommelier career happened about 11 years ago at the restaurant I was running in Washington, DC. There was a large charity wine event taking place in town, and as we were located right in the thick of things along Pennsylvania Ave., I was looking forward to seeing some fellow wine geeks that evening. Sure enough, as things wound down at the function, they arrived-fellow sommeliers that worked the event on their night off, guest winemakers from all over the world, well-heeled collectors, and assorted industry types. One such gentleman was the partner and corporate wine director for a well-established restaurant group in Baltimore, and I welcomed him and his guests to a table in the rear of the dining room. After fetching a bottle or five for some colleagues taking over our bar area, I returned to the table, where the person in question was looking over my wine list with a bit of-how do I say this delicately? Never mind, I can’t-thinly veiled arrogance. With a snotty smirk clearly meant to impress his tablemates but which was completely available for my review, he turned to me and said, “You’ve got a lot of questionable vintages on here.”
Look, I’m not saying that I’m the greatest wine professional that ever walked the rows of vines-far from it, and I (like all of us) am still learning and re-learning today. But what I am, and always have been, is fortunate: I got to work in a hotel that had Chateau Lafite Rothschild on the wine list when I was 19 (which I tasted wayyy too young-the wine, not me, but…ok I digress). When I moved to DC, I got a job at a restaurant with a half-million-dollar wine inventory straight away, working beside a sommelier who had been at the top of the DC wine game for two decades. I was a member of (and for close to four years hosted) a wine tasting group that was begun by four people, three of whom became the DC area’s first Master Sommeliers. I’m not taking credit for any of their successes, or any of these circumstances, for that matter-I’m just saying that luck and a little work ethic got me around talented and generous people, gave me the opportunity to develop a decent tasting palate, and informed me with what even 11 years ago on this night in DC were a healthy and robust set of opinions, which is why on that occasion when confronted by a hubris-laden lump of toxic masculinity calling my wine list’s vintages questionable, I rather cheekily responded with, “Why don’t you try one of the wines you’re referring to and maybe I can help you understand the answer.” I am not proud of this response-I should have known better, and in the years since have thankfully refined an already-strong sense of humility to the point where it now borders on debilitating. The POINT of this silly story is not me but rather the wine that was chosen: 2001 vintage Bordeaux from an estate in the Haut-Medoc, Chateau Lanessan.
Vintages in wine are a little like things you learn on a first date: useful guideposts at the outset of a journey that may or may not be a full indication of where things are headed. And like those first-date findings (this one’s taste in movies is promising, that one’s hygiene habits are a huge red flag), the evaluation on the quality of a given year for an entire region’s worth of wines is a helpful beginning but can also cause you to summarily dismiss those wines (or people, I’m beating this metaphor into the ground) that you might fall in love with upon closer inspection. For the record, 2001 Bordeaux from the area Chateau Lanessan hails from still rates 88/100 (“very good to excellent”) according to the Wine Advocate’s vintage chart, but the entire discussion of vintages in wine, particularly in the US, boils down to three truths in my opinion:
The US wine sales industry and critic-based wine journalism need a tool to control your opinions on products so they can sell them to you.
I’m no oenologist, but to my best understanding numbers on a wine label that signify its year of production have no discernible taste in and of themselves, and I haven’t licked enough labels to change this hypothesis.
If you come across great producers, no matter where in the world they hail from, trust them, and trust the professionals who turn you onto them. For with great producers the vintage debate becomes not “good year/bad year”, but “year for holding onto/year for enjoying presently”. And just like the knowledge that the person you love’s worst days are still better than the best days you’d have with someone else, the old adage that “great producers make great wine, no matter the vintage” is something I’ve seen borne out time and again in my career, where the vintage becomes merely a fun backstory as to what subtle characteristics defined a particular year in the life of the winery and winemaker, and not some be-all, end-all answer to the question of quality.
So with those truths in mind, it was a great privilege for me to revisit another vintage from a producer that I think of as great, the 2008 Chateau Lanessan.
Over thirty years ago, the eminent wine critic Robert Parker wrote in his exhaustive tome Bordeaux , “Chateau Lanessan can be one of the most outstanding wines of the Haut-Medoc appellation. The wine could probably be given serious consideration for fifth-growth status should any reclassification of the wines of the Medoc take place”. And while Parker’s opinion probably wasn’t needed to validate an estate that was founded in 1793 and has been owned by descendants from the same family over the 8 generations since, I share it because it mirrors my own observations: this winery makes powerful wines that age well and does so across a breadth of years, particularly since their decision to introduce new oak barrels into their aging program-although still only 33% of the wine is aged in new wood, it marks a departure from past decades where they used only older casks. Located in the north of the commune of Cussac and very close to the border with St. Julien (they are the first estate encountered directly south of the St. Julien 2nd Growth, Chateau Gruaud Larose), the beautiful 99 ha estate boasts 45 ha of vineyards, an area of parkland, sizable vegetable garden, and the Tudor-styled Chateau. Gravelly soil and the estate’s location in the Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant Haut Medoc favors the full-bodied, black-fruited grape in the blend, with a sizable portion of Merlot and dash of Petit Verdot thrown in for good measure.
The wines of Lanessan are fermented and vinified in concrete vats, and the choices of time spent in the vats, racking and returning, and pumping over of the juice are all adapted to their experience of the vintage. 2008 was a good, not exceptional year for Bordeaux-a fact that for Chateau Lanessan means that rather than waiting for an austere offering to turn palatable, the wine has been in its prime for several years and still has a few more. When I tasted the 2008 prior to choosing it for GWC’s Pollux membership, the hallmark characteristics of Chateau Lanessan were all in play: densely textured dark fruit and cassis, a certain plush softness from the Merlot, and this inescapable feeling that what you’re drinking should cost more than what it does, a familiar sentiment from a Chateau that is known for giving Cru Classe quality at a far better value. While the 2008 is of course closer to the end of its life span than the beginning, I cannot stress enough how rewarding it is, as both a retailer and a consumer in today’s wine market, to taste something with some bottle age that is ready to be enjoyed now, and to not have had to invest in its cellaring. Robert Parker states in his tasting review of the 2008 that it can be enjoyed through 2024, and at least for this particular wine, the eminent critic and I are on the same page. If we are to generalize anything about vintages in wine, perhaps it should be that they, like us, are merely a reflection of specific moments in time, ones that should be enjoyed and appreciated for what they are, while we can.
All right, rant concluded-D.
Chateau Lanessan Haut-Medoc, Bordeaux, 2008
Country of Origin: France
Location: Chateau Lanessan enjoys a location in the commune of Cussac, where it is not far from the famous commune of St. Julien-in fact, the Chateau was classified as a 4th Growth prior to the famous 1855 reckoning of Bordeau Chateaux, but the Boutellier family member who owned the property at the time felt it unnecessary to submit samples for the 1855 rankings that still exist to this day!
Soil: Gravel is the principle soil base for the vines of Lanessan, which average 30 years of age.
Grape Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Merlot 36%, Petit Verdot 4%.
Winemaking: The grapes are harvested and screened on a sorting table for ripeness. Fermented and vinified in temperature-controlled concrete tanks.
Aging: The Lanessan is aged for an average of one year in oak barrels, of which 1/3 are new, 1/3 are one year old, and the remaining 1/3 two years old.
Flavors and Foods: Cassis and dried flowers (violets) abound on the nose; a bit of forest floor and walnut is also present. The palate of the 2008 is in excellent shape, offering the aforementioned cassis with both dried and fresh red cherries (the 1/3 Merlot in the blend kicking in). The tannins at this point are quite well integrated and promote a soft, lush texture for the non-fruit elements to come in droves of complexity: gentle cigar box, wood-fired meat, black truffle, dried shallots, shitake mushroom, chocolate, and eucalyptus all made appearances in a recent tasting. Rustic preparations of steak (porterhouse cooked over a white oak fire with rosemary and thyme) come to mind, along with basically any “red meat slowly braised in a dutch oven” dish (daube of oxtail, short ribs and polenta are just two ideas). One thing I’ve noticed-go easy on any spices; the Lanessan’s softer notes disappear under heat and you are left with the forest floor characteristics only in an out-of-balance pairing.
Service and Cellar: One treat of the 2008 Chateau Lanessan is its readiness; the wine does quite well out of the bottle-a decant is good for aeration purposes initially, but the wine doesn’t require substantial time in a decanter before serving. Cellar temperature of 60 degrees or less is highly recommended; the warmer the wine gets, the more the cassis and forest floor notes begin to resemble amaro-type flavors. If you don’t have a wine fridge, a 30 minute trip to the refrigerator should help. Lastly, as the 2008 doesn’t need a ton of time to unfurl, I recommend enjoying it within 90 minutes-two hours from opening, as the freshness of the red cherries will otherwise fade and spoil what is a very “plug and play” bottle of deliciousness!