2020 Domaine Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru "La Forest"

A striking young wine, Dauvissat's brilliant 2020 Chablis 1er Cru La Forest unfurls in the glass with aromas of crisp orchard fruit, orange oil, pear, oyster shell, freshly baked bread and smoke, framed by a deft touch of reduction. Medium to full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, it's taut and concentrated, with racy acids, chalky structuring and a long, searingly mineral finish. Recent years have delivered so many brilliant renditions of La Forest that it's hard to pick a favorite between the likes of 2008, 2014, 2017 and 2019, but the 2020 is certainly a worthy entrant into the competition, and it's worth a special effort to seek out. Technically retired but very much a continuing presence at his eponymous domaine, Vincent Dauvissat—who forsook a career as a shepherd to become one of France's most celebrated vignerons—seemed just as delighted with his 2020s as he had been with his 2019s. Chiseled, concentrated and pungently mineral, there's no grower in the region who has done a better job of retaining all of Chablis's classical signatures in the warmer, sunnier vintages of the last decade. Once again, Dauvissat has produced some of the wines of the vintage, and they will be worth a special effort to seek out. Readers will remember that farming here is organic but without certification. The harvest is by hand, and the wines ferment in tank before racking to barrel with the lees (Raveneau's Chablis, by contrast, are racked to barrel more or less without their lees),WK