The Fevre 2008 Chablis Les Lys originates in a parcel not harvested as late this year as one would normally have expected from its high-elevation, northeastern exposure, says Didier Seguier, thanks to the millerandage and sparse berries in the already tiny-berried vine selection with which it was planted in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Lemon, grapefruit and white currant display a bright intensity unusual even for this vintage, and briny, alkaline mineral notes signaled already in the nose carry all the way through to a penetrating, saliva-inducing and enervating finish. Here is great example of how sheer generosity and lusciousness of fruit keep a firmly-textured, intensely citric and mineral-starched performance from coming off as austere. I would anticipate 6-8 years of satisfaction. The 2008 collection fielded by Didier Seguier and his team maintains their recent streak of excellence, but in a reversal of vintage typicity, seems, if anything, more dominated by its acidity and minerality than the 2007s, and less effusive than many of its vintage. Between poor flowering and dehydration, the crop was down around 20% in 2008 even from that of its hail-trimmed predecessor. The wines as usual were racked from barrel after malo (which this year, meant in April); some were bottled during the summer but the grand crus and most of the premier crus were bottled last November and December. Several of the wines that I tasted (noted in the text, and of course labeled without the word “domaine”) incorporate purchased fruit, but beginning with this vintage, the Fevre team not only calls the shots but does the picking for all of the grapes that inform wines labeled with their name. Like Hugel in Alsace, Fevre has been impressed enough with the new generation of DIAM composite corks to adopt them for a majority of their bottlings, in fact with this vintage for everything save grand cru – so let’s hope their confidence is well-placed! It perhaps also bears repeating that in my opinion there isn’t a track record for aging yet that one can apply to Fevre’s last three collections, the quality having improved too much to extrapolate with any reliably from previous vintages, so please take my prognoses as intuitive hunches. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6706