Chablis, Risk, Betrayal, Revenge; The Important StuffJ. Moreau & Fils, 2009, Chablis

A long overdue review and return to an old favourite for me occurred last night. I had a little date with RISK and wanted to numb the sting of rent week, so off to my now empty “cellar” (Thanks to two oxidised wines in one night), and fumbled about my stock, a Geil Pinot Noir (Review sometime soon I hope), an Alsace Pinot Blanc, a Segada, a Cluzan, a port and finally the last of my stock an interesting looking Chablis. 

So as we set off to conquer the world, the cards were dealt, dice rolled and cork popped. No sooner than I had my arse handed to me and had been kicked off half the globe did the whack of a clean cut, mineral laden pear extravaganza. Suddenly it didn’t matter that I was banged up in Australia. Suddenly that choke point on the board which meant I could hang on until the wine was gone and then break out and head for France for more in was looking a whole lot better. However something was bothering me, maybe it was the big blue army amassing in South and North America, maybe it was everyone else’s desire to avenge failings of their own lives on me, nope, it had to be something else. It was. It was a taste that was bugging me and not showing me who it was. I began to concentrate on other things, like the beautiful notes of peach, violets and apricots washing up and down my tongue in a wave and receding back to give way to room to the finish much like, a crisp acidic finish of lime and the length was as long as it took me to get back into the game (Which was rather long). 

The backbone of flint-like minerality which was wasting no time pushing through the wine seemed to mimic the blue army which was fast consolidating the world.

The tropics! That’s was bothering me the equator had been thrown wide open thanks to some bad defensive manoeuvre by the yellows. Then it hit me, tropical bloody fruit. Scribbling in rather big letters on the note book, Mellon, a certain grin clawed across my face, and as grapefruit was identified the grin only seemed to elongate. Things we looking up; the envious greens had their front broken by my dark horse black army, a ceasefire and truce had ensued, Africa started to look safe, and Asia minor was falling to me.





Then the wine ran out, now it’s not often this upsets me, but this did, the little Chablis star that had cost me no more than €14.95 and which had powered me to the great feats of RISK was gone, but the finish was lingering, as I soon did, alliance broken by the untrustworthy, the sibling rivalry flared again and woe I had warned of - the blues marched across the globe, and as the last glints of wine faded from my palate, the game was lost, and the was finished. Save, victory stolen from me and wine ravaged, I swore I’d return with more of the same Chablis.

As the day dawned the game had faded but the well made textbook Chablis had not, an amazing find and great way to get back into Chablis if you have lost your way or have become disillusioned with big slutty oaked Chardonnays. At the very least, well worth a look in.






Score: B