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Early September, Louis Moreau prepares the 2009′ harvest and makes some comments about the quality of the grapes on his estate vineyard. Domaine Louis Moreau was born from the passion of a family settled in Chablis in 1814. As soon as the late 19th century, the love of this family for great wines brought her to purchase plots in Grands Crus and Premiers Crus. Nowadays, proprietor of parcels in 5 of the Grands Crus, including a monopole, the domaine works many plots within the appellations of Petit Chablis, Chablis and Premiers Crus, in full respect of the environment. The most prestigious of its wines is the monopole Chablis Grand Cru Clos des Hospices dans les Clos whose acquisition was made by the Moreau family in 1904. Louis Moreau, who has been heading the domaine since 1994, elaborates wines of unique style, combining minerality, fineness, elegance and purity.

“Whites:Quality is very good throughout, from Mâcon to Chablis. The balance between alcohol and acidity is satisfactory. Lurking in the background is a whole gamut of pretty aromas, slightly less intense than 2005. This shows good promise!”

“If the 2006 vintage was slightly late in bud burst, this has been partially compensated for by a very rapid flowering, aided by the sudden arrival of exceptionally high temperatures in the middle of June. Since flowering, the progressive rise in temperatures has accelerated the rhythm and fruit set was observed in mid July. Thunderstorms at the end of the month have provided some refreshment, but we are still hoping for a more generous watering of the vines which are beginning to suffer slightly. The coming weeks will be decisive for the future development of the vines.”

For more information on Maison Lamblin, visit www.lamblin.com.

Following the 2002 harvest, the temperatures through November and December were above normal and damp, a stark contrast to January. January was very dry and very cold in Chablis. By February and March, the signs of drought were already showing, and precipitation was 50% below normal. In March it warmed up, with temperatures exceeding the average by several degrees, reaching 22ºC (72ºF) on two occasions. The warmth of March put the lifecycle of the vine ahead of schedule, exposing the vines to the possibility of frost damage.

Sure enough, severe frosts hit from April 6th – April 13th. The temperatures dropped to -9ºC (16ºF) on eight consecutive nights, remaining below freezing until midday. The sub-freezing temperatures severely damaged the crop. The effects were particularly bad on April 11th as it was not only frigid, but the humidity was 90% as well – ideally suited to the development of frost. Had this level of moisture been in the air through the entire string of bitterly cold days, a majority of the harvest may have been lost. The scourge affected plateaus most severely, but there were losses throughout Chablis.

Then the heat came. Following the chilly weather in the first half of April, temperatures began to rise. May was dry, with about 1/3 less rainfall than is normal although some sporadic hail damaged a few plots. It was also warm, seeing above average temperatures overall including a reading of 27.7ºC (82ºF), a record high. Thereafter, for the most part not a single drop of rain fell until harvest!

Flowering finished during the first few days of June. Usually this means that the harvest will be 100 days later, which in this case would have put the harvest date in the third week of September, vying for the earliest harvest in the last half-century! In the end, these estimates were about three weeks too late!

June finished as it had started and July continued with much of the same – heat and dryness. Early August saw nine consecutive days of temperatures above 40ºC (104ºF) including a peak of 41.7ºC (107.6ºF), the highest temperature ever recorded in Chablis! At such extreme temperatures, the vines in some cases shut down, completely stopping growth as a form of self-preservation. This defensive process was common during 2003.

The ban des vendanges, or official start of the harvest was finally set for August 25th; in the end, the time from flowering until harvest was only 90 days, not the usual 100). Many of the Chablisienne vignerons were off on vacation in the south of France or elsewhere and returned in disbelief shortly after receiving word of the historic start of the vintage. In some cases this meant frantically bottling the wines of the previous vintage that were resting quietly in tanks, finishing just in time to head to the vineyards.

The effect that these levels of heat have on grapes is profound. Petit Chablis is largely located on the plateaus above Chablis, A.C., Chablis Premier Cru and Chablis Grand Cru. The surface horizon on these plateaus is typically white Portlandien limestone, for which Petit Chablis is noted. Sunlight reflects off the stones, warming the vines (not unlike Chateauneuf-du-Pape, where the galets roules do the same). This warmth is usually advantageous in the cool climate of Chablis: in 2003 it was not helpful. The reflected sunlight was so hot that it excessively dried if not outright scorched the grapes. In addition, as previously mentioned, the April frost hit plateaus hardest. These two factors together resulted in losses of perhaps 2/3 of Petit Chablis.

Chablis, A.C. is generally located on north-facing slopes. The early cold weather affected Chablis greatly as well, and there will be less than usual by quite a bit. Unavoidably, the heat created very, very dense grapes at best and grapes scarred by the sunlight at worst. Given their less-favorable aspect (Chablis, A.C. is usually on north-facing slopes) however, Chablis A.C. was facing away from the sun, making it slightly more apt to be successful in a vintage of such extreme heat.

Owing to superior water reserves (one of the many positives granted by Kimmeridgian clay), Chablis 1er Cru and Grand crus fared well. At the same time, it is a parcel by parcel situation where some grapes survived and others were dehydrated or burnt due to a variety of factors, most importantly, aspect.

Acidities were much lower than normal, which poses a problem to the winemaker. It is common practice throughout the world to manually add tartaric acid to wine to raise acidity levels in the wines. The near absurdity of considering this technique in Chablis cannot be understated; the bracing acidity normally found in the wines makes it unnecessary. In 2003 a handful of about five to at most ten domaines claimed to have not acidified the wines. Secretly the remaining houses refuted these assertions as ridiculous!

Benoit Droin of Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoit Droin is one who contests that he did not acidify. A young man, vinifying only his third vintage, one might wonder if he asked his father (Jean-Paul) for advice. “No, he asked me what I wanted to do, because he had never seen a vintage like this either!” Some point out that in another early vintage, 1947, the best wines, most all of which had been acidified, live on today. Answering this point, Benoit counters that vineyard practices and hence the quality of grapes today is higher than ever, and certainly quite a bit higher than in 1947.

At Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils, Fabien Moreau stood at the end of the press as the juice exited with a device to measure the pH of the wine. He basically tossed the sheets of tartaric acid into the tanks in disbelief as each batch was processed.

Another, less frequent response to the low acidity of the grapes was to halt malolactic fermentation. During malolactic (or secondary) fermentation, the edgier malic acidity in the wine is converted into lactic acidity which as a softer, “milky” texture. Halting malolactic fermentation by chilling the wine or adding sulphur keeps the malic acidity in tact, resulting in racier wines. This technique is somewhat common in the Côte d’Or, used most notably by Maison Louis Jadot, and throughout the world. The problem with using this method for 2003 Chablis was that not only was the Total Acidity of the wine low, but the malic acidity was extraordinarily low. Many nixed this approach because they figured what little malic acidity was present wouldn’t make much of a difference even if it stayed.

A final method was employed by Domaine William Fèvre. Here, régisseur Didier Séguier applied for special consideration from the powers that be to harvest early, thus preserving as much acidity in the wines as possible. On the other hand, Jean-Luc Fourrey of Milly, hoping for rain to plump up the dry grapes, held off until early September. HE commented that the acidities weren’t moving in his vines, so it was worth the risk. A bit of rain finally came, and on September 7th, he harvested.

Unlike rotten grapes, burnt grapes are usually sorted out by machines that are used to finding stems and other debris by their density. After sampling a few hundred wines in tank, it’s clear that there are no off-putting aromas and the fruit is clean. It will remain to be seen whether the Chablisienne, who are not accustomed to the practice of acidification will be able to manage it wisely. The best wines will be very, very good, though likely not as complex as the greatest Chablis owing to the shorter growing season. Some wines will inevitably taste artificial due to overuse of acidification. Some wines will also be blowsy. Overall, most of the wines should be delicious, and their concentrated fruit will help them age over the medium term.

One final note: water reserves are obviously important in an excessively hot vintage like 2003. Vines that reached the deepest found nourishment and continued growth at a regular albeit accelerated pace. The vines most able to do this are old vines. The older the vine, the deeper into the soil it reaches. Old vines will produce the best wines in 2003.