WTN: Dauvissat, Figeac

Had friends over last night for a spring dinner -- Ottolenghi's lemony white bean purée with pickled mushrooms, then a falling-apart braised pork shoulder with a crunchy salad of celery, radish, fennel, red pepper, cherry tomatoes, anchovy, lemon, and olive oil, plus roasted asparagus and ramps.

Started with a Dauvissat 2000 Chablis 1er Cru "La Forest," the last bottle a handful purchased in Chicago on release. Luckily, this was in great shape. Medium yellow, fabulous texture, vivid, still a little fresh tree and citrus fruit sliding into waxy honey in the mouth, long and minerally finish, no perceptible oxidation. I also have a lone 2002 to go...

Our friends brought a 2016 Petit-Figeac St.-Émilion which they'd bought to bring to dinner at our place months ago, when it was still cold (that event was postponed by the Great Siphonapteric Invastion of 2025); I worried about how it would work with the revised, springy menu, but it was actually just fine: while this was a pretty dense wine, it was neither heavy nor, at this stage, especially tannic, showing velvety black currant fruit accented by graphite and a little vanilla.

I had a full 5-oz. pour of each, making for the largest quantity of ethanol I've actually swallowed in one sitting in a year -- a very nice way to celebrate 12 months of successful moderation, which has kept me arrythmia-free. If my cardiologist was hoping for a new set of golf clubs, he'll have to wait!

Started with a Dauvissat 2000 Chablis 1er Cru "La Forest," the last bottle a handful purchased in Chicago on release. Luckily, this was in great shape. Medium yellow, fabulous texture, vivid, still a little fresh tree and citrus fruit sliding into waxy honey in the mouth, long and minerally finish, no perceptible oxidation. I also have a lone 2002 to go...

Sounds great. Glad it worked out with no ox. Good luck for the '02! I remember drinking 02 Dauvissat La Forest in the mid aughts as a grad student, and loving it. I suppose in theory I could afford the 2022 as a prof, but still feels like a bigger stretch than that 02 did back in the days...

I had a full 5-oz. pour of each, making for the largest quantity of ethanol I've actually swallowed in one sitting in a year..

Glad your health is working out, but haven't I seen you post notes in the past year? Were you just taking very small portions?

Thanks! Yes, I was advised to keep to max 5 standard drinks a week, so I’ve limited myself to a glass to a glass and a half at a time, and also bought a spittoon that doesn’t offend my design sensibilities, which has allowed me to follow a nicer or older bottle over an evening (with Andrea, of course!) without exceeding my limits. I’ve been quite rigid about it, measuring my pours and even using a tracking app that allows you to specify ABV and milliliters consumed. Could I “get away” with a little more? Probably, but I don’t mind the structure, and I’ve been able to find a pattern that allows me to continue to enjoy both the beverage and the hobby. Given the alternative, which is — at best! — being on rate control meds and anticoagulants for the rest of my life, it doesn’t really feel like much of a sacrifice!

Just looked up current pricing on the 2022, and I see what you mean. The price tag was still on the bottle I opened last night: $48.99. (Yes, I removed it before our guests arrived.) This is also why I don’t buy Chevillon any more…

Thanks! Yes, I was advised to keep to max 5 standard drinks a week... Given the alternative, which is — at best! — being on rate control meds and anticoagulants for the rest of my life, it doesn’t really feel like much of a sacrifice!

Yes. Health is wealth! And it sounds like you have a good balance.

Just looked up current pricing on the 2022, and I see what you mean. The price tag was still on the bottle I opened last night: $48.99. (Yes, I removed it before our guests arrived.) This is also why I don’t buy Chevillon any more…

I just checked my old notebooks and I was drinking a bunch of 02 Dauvissat in 2006, when I was buying them for 25 euros in Paris retail. (Or a few euros more for older vintages). Same time I also noted lovely 02 Vatan Sancerre for 34 euros on Paris restaurant wine lists.

Old story (from old guys) but today's grad students can't drink those same wines in the same way.

But, I suppose they are drinking something else, that 20 years in the future will also have become more expensive! And the cycle continues...

From what I can tell, I think they're mostly drinking cider, cocktails, CBD-spiked goji berry sparkling water, and 5-Hour Energy, with the occasional bottle of Susucaru. (I exaggerate, but not by much.)

From what I can tell, I think they're mostly drinking cider, cocktails, CBD-spiked goji berry sparkling water, and 5-Hour Energy, with the occasional bottle of Susucaru. (I exaggerate, but not by much.)

Yup, I'm seeing much the same, including from my own 20-y.o. son. He'll try a sip of a wine we've got open but no real desire to try them on his own.

Sigh, for the days when Dauvissat was affordable (still not so bad in restaurants in France).
Thanks for notes, and good job at monitoring consumption for health.

Sounds great. Glad it worked out with no ox. Good luck for the '02! I remember drinking 02 Dauvissat La Forest in the mid aughts as a grad student, and loving it. I suppose in theory I could afford the 2022 as a prof, but still feels like a bigger stretch than that 02 did back in the days...

My first ever exposure to Chablis was two bottles of the '85 RENE Dauvissat Les Preuses drunk on two separate occasions while I was in grad school. The first was a birthday celebration for me in a wacky Italian-American restaurant in Brooklyn that we'd read about in the Spec that sold wine at cost (that Dauvissat, a half bottle of Guigal Brune et Blonde and a bottle of '78 Torres Gran Coronas) and the second at a dinner at Le Grenouille, a tiny French place near Columbia, to celebrate my successful PhD defense in '88. Both drunk way too young, but still completely memorable.