The number of bottles of this cuvée is reducing as the younger vines are now regularly going into a separate ‘1er cru’ cuvée. This left-bank wine is a mix of parcels focusing mainly on Epinottes and Séchet. The nose is understated and focused, the palate is sweet, with rather well concentrated flavours and a nice flavourful fruit-driven length. It’s a very nice wine – and always a very well priced bottling – but in this vintage, doesn’t really shout ‘Chablis!’ to me.
Long-Depaquit
2005 Long-Depaquit Chablis Vaucoupin
This right-bank cuvée has a lovely, more mineral nose with accents of citrus fruit. The palate seems similarly concentrated to the Vaillons but everything is delivered in a much more mineral fashion. Philippe quotes “as Vaillons starts to die Vaucoupins starts to wake”. This is my style of Chablis, it is mineral, it is understatedly intense and has lovely acidity breaking across the palate into the finish. Excellent!
2005 Long-Depaquit Chablis Les Blanchots
2005 Long-Depaquit Chablis Le Clos
A more mineral rather than sweet nose – quite understated with faint brioche and hints of citrus. Likewise the palate displays understated power and real minerality – super depth. What fruit shows itself is very ripe but pretty much hidden under the structure. Really fine acidity pushes a wonderful length. Really excellent.
2005 Long-Depaquit Chablis Vaudesir
The nose starts wide but with limited depth, only slowly in the glass does it reach deaper. Even after the ‘Clos’ this seems more mineral again, very, very long too. The waves of flavour just keep washing over the palate. This is a really successful blend of richness, power and minerality bound to a wonderfully ebullient personality – I loved it.
2005 Long-Depaquit Chablis La Moutonne
The nose is quite dense, riper and more fruit driven than the Vaudesir. The palate is richer and also a little sweeter than that wine – still with the minerality for super Chablis though. It’s a real mouthful of wine, intense yet presented in a more refined fashion than the ‘wall of flavour’ offered by the Vaudesir. The length impresses terribly. The domaine thinks that the gap between this wine and the others is the widest they have ever seen.