Chablis Fourchaume 2014

Once again a wonderfully fresh nose features cool, pure, airy and ripe aromas that carry a plethora of Chablis elements which continue onto the vibrant flavors that deliver more size, weight and volume but also more power as well. I very much like the cut and intensity as well as the finishing complexity and this is a very good example of what is often a variable appellation.
 

Daniel Dampt calls 2014 "a classic vintage that began well but it was much too hot during the flowering that caused a high incidence of shatter. Moreover there were plenty of tiny berries that simply turned white and fell off. This was followed by what was frankly a mediocre summer that was responsible for delaying the finish to the véraison until almost the first of September! Somewhat miraculously the weather turned warm and dry in the month preceding the harvest which even more interestingly wasn't the case of the Côte d'Or or the Mâconnais. We chose to begin picking on the 15th of September and brought in impeccably clean fruit that possessed good if not high levels of sugars and acidities. We were worried that we didn't quite have the final maturities that we wanted but in the end that proved not to be the case. The north wind had been blowing prior to the harvest and this is why we had such good concentrations as well as such beautifully clean fruit. The alcoholic fermentations went off with no problems but the malos required a long time to finish because there was a very high level of malic acidity. In fact the drop in total acidities and rise in pHs was remarkable to see.

Overall, 2014 gave us excellent raw materials and the fine quality of the wines is proof of that." Given the modest prices that the Dampt family wines typically sell for they represent screaming values. Note: identical wines to the Daniel Dampt examples also appear under the Jean Defaix label. See also the related domaines of Sébastien and Vincent Dampt below. On another front Dampt noted that they have moved to bottling 90% of their wines now with the Diam brand composite cork with the remainder being stoppered either under screwcap or natural cork, depending on the importer preference.