2002 Fevre: The Agony and the Ecstasy

A group of wine geeks concerned about the reports of prem-ox affecting the 2002 Fèvre Chablis in particular assembled to taste through many of their Grand Cru and a couple of Premier Cru from the vintage.

Some conclusions first:

• The 2002 Chablis, and the Fèvre in particular, are fragile. They apparently need to be treated with kid gloves.

• Mistreatment in shipping or storage prior to their retail sale for some of the wines seems pretty clear to me at least. Some batches of the wine are affected at a very high rate, while other batches are almost unaffected. This is incompatible with a 100% random process as one would expect with bad corks, for example.

• Lining all the wines up in the same kind of glass with the same fill, subtle differences in color were apparent, with the palest wine being the Preuses described below.

So first, a suite of 2002 Fèvre purchased through Premier Cru on the gray market from an importer in Denmark (the labels on the back are in Danish).

2002 Fèvre Montée de Tonnerre
Very pale yellow, this gives off faint chalky aromas laced with quinine. In the mouth, this is missing just a touch of the richness and complexity that shows up in the Grand Cru that follow, but the weightlessness and overall balance are convincing. This bottle has that almost feminine delicacy and elegance that are the hallmarks of the best Montée de Tonnerre. In fine shape…

2002 Fèvre Vaudésir
Just the faintest darker hue than the MdT, this was nonetheless another bottle in great shape, with a lively acidity on the palate framing richer, sappier, more complex fruit. The bracing citrus notes on the palate are fading here and there is just a touch of caramel appearing, but it all seems in the right proportion. This kept expanding in the glass, with new floral notes and texture emerging with time.

2002 Fèvre Bougros Côtes des Bouguerots
Another richer style of Chablis (within the Fèvre fold), but with even more bracing acidity than the Vaudesir showed, with notes of quinine tempered by the faintest touch of more volatile sherry aromas. This again seems to be in a good place on the aging curve, although I don’t know if it will make it to 20 years. A fine effort, but maybe not quite as compelling as some of the Bouguerots I have had in later years.

2002 Fèvre Preuses
I have had an advanced version of this wine in the past that was still quite good, with softer floral and tropical fruit aromas that made for a very different style from what appears here. This bottle had the palest color of any in the lineup, with only the faintest trace of straw yellow. On the nose the seductive aromas are of oyster shell, chalk, and tidal pool delivered with great delicacy and detail. On the palate this is not the most powerful wine that you will encounter, but it is hard to imagine a more weightless one, or one with greater crystallinity, detail, and transparency. This is like looking into a crystal clear tidal pool, with details at depth showing remarkably in focus. It is not often that mere mortals get to see Newton’s Law of Gravity flouted so brazenly and successfully. The long seashell and saline notes linger on the palate with an almost ghostly presence. This was a great bottle that I could not get out of my mind (or off my palate) as I mistakenly drove west instead of east on leaving the tasting…

2002 Fèvre Valmur
The strongest color of any in the original six, and also the most advanced, with distinct sherry and almond notes on the nose. This would be relatively easy to drink and enjoy under normal circumstances, but it suffered in comparison with the more crystalline and pristine examples that preceded it. The palate has lost some of its clarity as well as the sherry flavors are starting to obscure the underlying structure of the wine.

2002 Fèvre Clos
I thought this one initially was more advanced than it was, with soft honey notes on the nose and a sappy mid-palate low in acidity. This wine was much more richer than I recall from earlier tastings, but also less advanced than previous recent bottles that showed more like the one described below. With time in the glass, this actually firmed up, holding its own for the rest of the evening.

Now a couple of 2002 Fèvre Chablis from my own cellar, which have been affected in the recent past by prem-ox:

2002 Fèvre les Clos (from the Wine House in Los Angeles, directly imported by Cliquot Inc.)
This bottle shows a more pronounced caramel –sherry notes than the preceding gray market Clos, although the bottle is still drinkable for those with some tolerance for this character. The ghost of quinine and oyster shell flavors can still be detected through the encroaching oxidative flavors, but the detail is beginning to blur.

2002 Fèvre Bougros (from Premier Cru, with a label in French on the back)
Even stronger sherry and caramel notes here with only the ghost of acidity and Chablis character lurking in the background, like those ruined cities of bygone eras now overgrown with vegetation that you read about in fantasy novels. Very much in keeping with at least some of the recent 2002 Fèvre Bougros I have had from the same source, although out of five sampled earlier, two were still good.

2002 Fèvre Vaillons (from Premier Cru, with a label in French on the back)
This bottle was again similar in style to the last 5 or 6 Vaillons I have had over the last year, except this was even further gone. One would be hard pressed here to even identify it as a Chablis.

To conclude, a beautiful 1986 Climens Sauternes, with apricot, almond, and botrytis aromas in perfectly orchestrated balance. Ethereal, with delicate acidity and fantastic length, this was as good as a bottle I tasted a few years ago.