At a WSET blind tasting tonight three of the wines tasted did not seem to have a clear sense of place about them.
One of them, the Louis Michel Chablis Premier Cru Montmain 05, seemed so far removed from Burgundy I was reaching for Sicily or Sud-Tirol as a place to park it.
For sure, it was a fine glass of wine. A mature nose of vegetal notes, earthy minerality, and a little toffeed sweetness led onto a medium bodied, bone-dry, balanced palate with plenty of green fruit, and a definite sharp stony character.
But, it just didn't seem like Chablis. However I tried, I couldn't find steeliness. Nothing green in the colour. It was perhaps a little unfair to look for raciness in a five year old white wine, but I did look. Alas, in vain.
Later I was complaining about lack of typicity to a non-wine drinking whisky buff, who asked, "does typicity matter as long as it tastes good?".
"Well of course it does", is what I ought to have said. "You wouldn't want me to hold up Benriach Curiositas as a canonical Speyside Malt". Failing to be even remotely as snappy as that, I mumbled something about authenticity and expectations.
But, l'esprit de l'escalier aside, typicity does matter. Which is why this lovely wine scores a rather measly -3.
