Vincent Dauvissat Petit Chablis 2019

The 2019 Petit Chablis has turned out brilliantly, wafting from the glass with aromas of citrus oil and white flowers, mingled with classically Chablisien hints of oyster jus and Parmesan cheese rind. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and incisive, it’s deep and unusually concentrated, with tangy acids and a long, intensely saline finish. As usual, it’s “Petit” in name only, surpassing many other producers’ grandest bottlings. Technically retired but very much a continuing presence at his eponymous domaine, Vincent Dauvissat—who forsook a career as a shepherd to become one of France’s most celebrated vignerons—couldn’t disguise his satisfaction as we tasted his recently bottled 2019 portfolio. After some discussion, we settled on the 1989 vintage (“but tighter and more incisive”) as a possible analogy for 2019’s hyper-concentrated, ripe, but all the while classically Chablisien style. In any case, they’re some of the wines of the vintage and are well worth seeking out. Readers will remember that farming here is organic but without certification. The harvest is by hand, and the wines ferment in tank before racking to barrel with the lees (Raveneau’s Chablis, by contrast, are racked to barrel more or less without their lees), spending a second winter in wood before bottling. – The Wine Advocate