From 40- to 50-year-old vines, the Moreaus’ 2006 Chablis Vaillons features apricot, lime, and oregano in a juicy matrix tinged with lanolin and slightly awkward milky notes. Its minerality is expressed as a stony, slightly hard note (along with pungent citrus zest) in the finish. There is no doubt about this wine’s admirable concentration, and I wonder whether I might have caught it at (and some of its siblings) at an awkward stage (although they had by then been in bottle for two months). That said, I was also only moderately impressed with the 2005.
Christian and Fabien Moreau are engaged in an ambitious plan to pull their domaine (whose grand cru-rich acreage the family reclaimed in 2002) to the front ranks of their region. Even the generic wines are hand-harvested (although the A.O.C. Chablis is supplemented by some purchased fruit) and a vibrating trie de table surely put to good effect in the most recent vintages. The rotation between tank and barrel and the percentage of new wood vary for each vintage and individual cru, and the father-son team here plainly place proud emphasis on their flexibility and experimental-mindedness. All this said, my reaction to their 2006s and 2005s was to say the least muted when compared with the accolades that these wines have garnered in other quarters, so I hope to discover that I caught the wines at a difficult time (and of course to re-taste them).
Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700
粵公網安備 44030502006249號