A lucky streak of no Premox

We’ve been slowly eating our way through a good first harvest of chanterelles. We’ve had chanterelles in frittata, tortilla, in soups, with halibut, and over fresh tagliatelle. And chanterelles mean chardonnay, a very fine match – repeatedly confirmed with these dinners. So over the past couple weeks or so, I’ve had a bunch of white burgs and Oregon chardonnay. The wines, and my impressions of them:

2016 Vincent Ribbon Ridge Chardonnay – Needed half an hour in the decanter to really come around. My first time trying this since the release tasting, and it showed very well. Has both acid and richness – with the structure to last, I’ll save my remaining bottles for a good few years. Starting in 2017, Vincent now labels this bottling as “Brick House Vineyard.” Worth looking out for.

2000 Dauvissat-Camus Chablis La Forest – Showed very nicely, but I won’t hold my remaining bottles much longer. Had that note of gruyere that I love in old Chablis.

2000 Blaine-Gagnard Batard-Montrachet – A grand bottle, showing both finesse and power. If I had to pick at a fault, it would lack of delineation, but that would be picking nits. Great concentration and a core of golden fruit. At peak, but not in danger of decline.

2016 Evening Land Chardonnay Seven Springs – Really a very nice bottle, but it suffered a bit by comparison with my memory of the previous evening’s Batard.

2007 Chandon de Briailles Pernand 1er blanc Iles des Vergelesses – More richness than one usually calls to mind for white Pernand, paired with impressive acidity levels, made this wine a treat.

1996 Domaine Pinson Chablis Montmains – This bottle knocked my socks off. I’ve had several other '96 white burgs (both Chablis and Cote d’Or) this summer, and most have been in the ought-to-be-drunk-soon stage of life if they weren’t outright premoxed. This wine showed great freshness and lots of mineral zing. Just really impressive. The last bit in the bottle showed well the next day, but not as well as the day it was opened. I know I’ve had this at least once before, and wasn’t nearly so impressed. Maybe it just needed the extra time. Sadly my last bottle.

Thank you for sharing your notes! I’ll have to raid the farmer’s market this weekend

What is it about these that makes you want to drink them up? Is it just that there isn’t further upside from here?

It felt like it was just on the edge of the downslope, with no zing to spare. Of course, there’s a lot more variation in bottles this old, so it could easily be that the next one I try shows more liveliness.

Okay, maybe I need to read and taste more, but drinking those 96 Chablis this summer - would a 23 year old Chablis that is oxidized be “premoxed?” How about that it was just “oxidized?” I get that 96 was cool, should age well, and I did have a 97 Leflaive (Combettes?) about 5 years ago that was clearly showing the warmer vintage (it was golden and getting to be quite oxidized). So 23 years and 96 Chablis should be still chugging along?

For me, it’s been pretty easy to tell the difference between bottles that have been oxidized because they are older, and the bottles that have been premoxed (at 23 years, they are so far gone).

And no, I wouldn’t expect most 96 Chablis to still be chugging along. But top premier crus and very good grands crus, yes. And, yes, vintage definitely plays a part, as my bottles from 97-99 are long gone (other than one or two I lost track of).

Well-stored, well-made Chablis from the 1995-2001 period should be (and are) drinking well. Not over the hill and oxidized. I have had examples of both fresh and strong AND tired and oxidized.

(Lee, I grant you used the word “most” and agree with you there, but we all don’t buy most Chablis. I’d characterize folks who post here and our other haunt of trying to buy what we think of and hope are the best wines from Chablis.)

Even putting premox aside, I think it’s an empirical question whether today’s Chablis (generalizing here) will get there too. My fingers are crossed.

Added: FWIW, my 2000 Dauvissats, Clos and Preuses sourced in Europe IIRC, premoxed, and I sold most of it years ago. It was so sad as these wines were totally electric on release, especially Preuses.

96 Pinson Clos, back in the day, was a screaming deal but premoxed. Haven’t tried their other 96 offerings.