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94 WA.
"The 2002 Chablis 1er Cru La Forest offers up a lovely bouquet of orange blossom, iodine, blanched almonds, lemon oil and fresh field mushroom. On the palate, it's full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, with stunning purity and completeness, a deep, crystalline core and a long, stony finish. This is a sublime Forest from one of Vincent Dauvissat's all-time greatest vintages, a year that is always striking for its ineffable sense of harmony and elegance at this address. As is consistently the case, Vincent Dauvissat has fashioned some of the finest wines to be found in both the 2016 and 2017 vintages. 2016 is a small crop, amounting to a mere third of an average harvest. The wines are comparatively low in acidity, with notable concentration, but remaining tense, pure and incisive. By the standards of Dauvissat's wines, I suspect they will prove comparatively precocious but hold well—perhaps evoking the 1992 vintage. The Domaine also suffered in 2017, though not as badly, losing some 30% of a normal harvest. The remaining grapes were ripe and clean, producing wines best described as classic but charming. As at several other addresses where long sur lie élevage is the norm, I caught the nascent 2017s very early in their evolution, so I'll try to look at them again later in the year." William Kelley, Wine Advocate, Aug 2018 |