by GINNY GILMORE
Would I like to go to a dinner and in-depth Chablis tasting? Of course I would! So I set off for Sam’s Brasserie in Chiswick to meet the team from The Vinter and their Chablis gurus La Chablisienne.
Tom Gilbey and his team had assembled an interesting crowd of wine lovers to learn more about where and how Chablis is made – including one chap who acts as wine buyer for a city firm who confessed to loving Chardonnay but hating Chablis, at least at the start of the evening.
We kicked off with a village wine (La Pierrelée 2009 – £13.50) that made a splendid aperitif, as well as pairing well with my oysters and shallot vinegar, but I gather it struggled with the pea purée that accompanied the scallops. The wine was taut and austere with the steely, flinty notes that I always associate with Chablis.
The second wine (Les Vénérables Vielles Vignes 2009 – £17.00) showed the effects of 50-year-old roots drilling into the soil. The wine was rounder with more concentrated fruit, slightly buttery notes and hints of melon. Apparently it made a better match for the scallops as well.
The next two wines were Premier Cru Chablis (Côte de Lechet 2009 – £18.00 and Vaulorent 2009 – £20.00) which showed the influence of microclimate on the wines. The Côte de Lechet is from a south-east facing site on the left bank of the Serein and, according to the chap from La Chablisienne is “a wine of the air”. It was certainly pure and clean tasting, a definite step-up from the village wines. The Vaulorent is grown on the right bank on a south-west facing slopes and is, apparently, a taste of the soil. The wine has more fruit and floral nose and less ‘minerality’ and it certainly struggled with the orange hollandaise sauce that came with the steamed plaice. I am still wondering exactly what wine would be a perfect match for orange hollandaise as I write.
We moved on to the meat course and the Grand Cru Chateau Grenouilles 2008 (£49.00). The wine showed astonishing acidity and fruit, but drinking it now is pure infanticide. The step-change in quality was clear to all, but the wine is still disconnected and needs time to develop. The chap from La Chablisienne assured us that 2008 will be the quintessence of Chablis – so now you know what to look for in a couple of years.
The Chateau Grenouilles also started a very lively debate about the effects of terroir – what would happen if you planted Chenin Blanc on the banks of the Serein? Would it taste like Chablis or would it taste like a Loire wine? Discuss.
The cheese course was accompanied by a magnum or two of the Grenouilles 1994. I think it must have been getting late as my note reads “just excellent” which is hardly helpful. It was however a mature, robust and well-balanced wine.
There were rumours of a Côte de Lechet 2000, but the bottle that appeared at our table had evolved to the point of extinction, a shame but one of the perils of allowing wine to age.
