2006 Chablis Les Clos

From cask, the 2006 Chablis Les Clos represents another striking contrast within this year’s R.& V. Dauvissat collection. After the welcoming richness and savory expressions of Chablis character in the Preuses, this wine displays a cool restraint and stony minerality. A fascinating wealth of floral and herbal nuances on the nose similarly infuse a mouth-filling, satiny, yet firm palate, accompanied by grapefruit, orange, gooseberry, white peach, cyanic hints of fruit pit, and chalk, and leading to a finish of extraordinary, subtle persistence. This formidably dense Chablis should be permitted several years of bottle evolution, and should then drink well for more than a decade. The 2005 is creamy, honeyed, malted, and amazingly concentrated, with hints of exotic fruits and bitter cyanic notes – an extravagantly, colorfully impressive Les Clos, if not quite at the quality level of the 2006. Oct 2008, www.robertparker.com