2024 Jonas Dostert Chardonnay 'Frost', 750ml

Jonas says the Chardonnay was hard to manage with the frosts. He writes: "Chardonnay and frost. Year after year, Chardonnay is in more of a hurry than the other varieties. There's a full week between Chardonnay's bud break and that of my other varieties. Its susceptibility to frost is therefore already higher." There are two results. The first, obviously enough, is that there is very little to go around. The second, less obviously (though if you know Jonas it's less surprising), is that Jonas felt like he shouldn't call the wine Chardonnay. So, for this vintage only, he's calling it "Frost," as a way to acknowledge the suffering, the extra work, the reality of the vintage. That said, the wine is lovely. I have written many times that Dostert's wines, especially the gunflint Chardonnay, reminds me of what I think a great Chablis from the 1980s from Dauvissat might taste like. All the descriptors, the loving phrases likening Chablis to breaking open rocks and oyster shells, well here it is.