WTN: 2008 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Grand Cru "les Preuses"

13% abv. Medium gold color with transparency. Flinty core wrapped in tart green apple notes. Lemon citrus acid also prevalent. I would be happy with this as a premier cru Chablis but expected a bit more from a "Les Preuses." At least it showed no signs of premature oxidation. It worked quite well as a pairing with Welsh rarebit and veal piccata. It was a counterpoint to the richness of the cheese in the rarebit and had some echoes of the lemon in the veal piccata

[David M. Bueker]

The premox risk will rob us all from seeing what top site wines can do with age. I bet you would have gotten a "grander" experience several years down the road, but would have been taking a notable risk.

Brocard´s wines rarely premox, but nor do they age very well, IMHO. I have 2004s in my cellar that are already over the hill.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

[David M. Bueker]

How far back is your experience with Brocard? 2004 is still an at risk vintage.

Started buying with the 98s and stopped with the 05s. Not a single bottle survived its tenth birthday.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

After getting burned by multiple bottles of pre-moxed 2002 Fevre Valmur I have only purchased GC Chablis with Diam closures.

[David M. Bueker]

Fredrik,

All your buys are in the heart of the premox epidemic.

After getting burned by multiple bottles of pre-moxed 2002 Fevre Valmur I have only purchased GC Chablis with Diam closures.

Sam,
What confidence do you have that Diam provides any protection against the p'ox? From all that I've read, the causes of PremOx are still very much a subject of debate.

Mark Lipton

Fredrik,

All your buys are in the heart of the premox epidemic.

I know, but they were not premoxed, not a single one. They were just steadily going down after the age of five.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

Sam,
What confidence do you have that Diam provides any protection against the p'ox? From all that I've read, the causes of PremOx are still very much a subject of debate.

Hi Mark,

When I complained directly to Fevre about my premoxed ‘02’s they sent some detail on their plans to address the issue, including a move to Diam, along with some technical references on the properties of the Diam material. That has been some years back (2006) but I remember that Diam had a lower oxygen permeability rate than natural cork. Also, failure data (TCA/premox) showed a significantly lower failure rate for Diam versus natural in side-by-side tests. Can’t say I reviewed the papers with a terribly critical eye, but the conclusions seemed to make sense.

Anecdotally I have never experienced premox in a wine with a Diam closure. Admittedly, my sample size is rather small. I do not tend to age Chablis and white Burgs very long either. The 2002 Fevre Chablis was opened in 2006 and was undrinkable. The white Burgs I have had trouble with were rather young as well.