Premier Cru Chablis

Chablis must be one of the most difficult regions in the world to consistently make wine in: notorious spring frosts can kill a vintage off before it's even begun and harvesting grapes is all about maintaining the "fragile equilibrium," as it was described to me at a recent tasting in Napa, between the ripeness of the fruit and aromatic complexity.

The wines of Chablis vary subtly from vineyard to vineyard. They share a high acidity, a reserved saline character, and a purity of fruit, but location changes the quality and intensity of a wine. The tricky cool climate makes aspect all-important, the best vineyards raised towards the sun for the grapes to attain full ripeness. Such a situation can transform a simple wine from the flat vineyards of Chablis into a wine much more powerful, complex, and expressive.

soils

evocative photo of Chablis's soils

Chablis's soils are a younger limestone than those of the rest of Burgundy further south. For this reason, fossilised oysters are found in the vineyards. I doubt there is any direct influence from these oysters on to the wines, but there is a definite saline quality to Chablis not dissimilar to Jerez or Rías Baixas. The soils in Chablis are called Kimmeridgian (named after the Dorest village, Kimmeridge, in the south of England), with marl and layers of sedimentary rock besides limestone and oysters. The word "minerality" is often used to describe Chablis's best wines. It's a word I really dislike, but in the tasting I heard the best description of what the word may actually describe. "I once asked my father," one winemaker related, "what this strange word minerality means. He told me to pick up a rock and lick it. That is minerality."

climats and lieux-dits

In Chablis, a climat is a vineyard that has been classified as a Premier or Grand Cru, while a lieu-dit is a site within a climat with its own name. The name of a climat is most often used as they are more recognisable, but the name of a specific lieu-dit may be used instead. For example the Premier Cru Fourchaume is a climat which has three lieux-dits within it - L'homme mort, Vaupulent, and Côte de Fontenay. In the rest of Burgundy, a climat is simply a designated vineyard, a lieu-dit a vineyard good enough to have a name but not elevated into a Premier or Grand Cru.

premier cru and grand cru

There are forty-seven climats in Chablis, forty of which are Premiers Crus (in total, 800ha) and seven Grands Crus (100ha). There is some controversy about the number of Premier Cru vineyards, as it was felt that the 1943 classification awarded vineyards which did not have a historical reputation of producing distinct wine. The Premier Cru climats lie halfway up slopes of varying aspects and where there is more marl and fossilised oyster shells. The seven Grand Cru climats are all on one slope on the right bank overlooking the town of Chablis. Hopefully, the differences between the seven will be the subject of another blog post, but there's another small and confusing controversy: there is a lieu-dit called La Moutonne straddling two of the climats which does not have Grand Cru status.

left and right banks

Chablis is a small town through which runs the river Serein. From this valley rise hills on which are found the best Chablis vineyards. Some divide these vineyards into "left bank" - described as tighter and leaner - and "right bank." However, the vineyards face in so many directions on each bank that it's difficult to generalise about a distinct left and right bank style. Instead, it's the character and aspect of each vineyard that's more important, as well as the winemaker's production methods.

oak and MLF 

At the tasting, I asked Jean-Pierre Renard of the Ecole des Vins de Bourgogne if the use of oak were controversial. I received a very French response - "No, of course not," before he described in some detail why it is controversial. Most people, he continued, agree that oak is not necessary because it smothers the purity and stony, steely nature of the wines, implying that anyone using oak is doing something very non-Chablis. He also made the good point that not ageing the wine in oak allows producers to release wines when they are younger, fruitier, and more approachable. If a winemaker does wish to age a wine in oak, it needs to be full-bodied and complex enough to absorb the oak, which is why only Premier Cru and Grand Cru wines see oak and then only in small amounts.

I also asked how common malolactic fermentation is in Chablis. I received the answer that 99.9% of wines go through MLF, except in the warmest of years. As the climate is so cool and the acidity so naturally high, it does not surprise me that MLF is used to soften the acidity but I still find it hard to detect any MLF aromas in the wines of Chablis. If the best Chablis wines can go through malolactic fermentation without disturbing their pure, lean expression, it indicates how high the acidity must be in the first place.

wines

I tasted six Premier Cru wines, all from the 2013 vintage, three from the right bank and three from the left. 2013 was a vintage which had a cold, wet spring, followed by a warm ripening season. In general, the wines are round, soft, with a fresh but not aggressive acidity. Tasting Chablis can be difficult - rather than looking for and describing the fruit aromas of a wine, it's much more about its structure. The name of each Premier Cru in the wines below is underlined.

Chablis tasting at Torc, Napa

 

J. Moreau et Fils Vaillons Premier Cru 2013

Vaillons - literally "little valley" - is a steep, rocky east/south-east facing slope directly overlooking the village of Chablis on the left bank. I immediately encountered a seashell quality to the wine, which I realised, as I tasted through the other wines, was a salinity characteristic to Chablis. Another characteristic is green apple, together with a taut acidity. Light floral and spicy notes of hawthorn and cinnamon added some complexity to the wine, which lacked concentration compared to the following wines. ✪✪✪✪

Jean-Marc Brocard Vau de Vey Premier Cru 2013

Again, green apples and salinity in this wine which came from very slightly further north than the previous one. The acidity here was so high I could almost smell it. However, there was a rich, ripe intensity to the wine which gave it greater depth, with concentrated aromas of beeswax and hazelnut. The paradoxical aspect of Chablis is that the fewer adjectives one can find to describe the wine, the greater it probably is (something Chablis shares with nearby Champagne). ✪✪✪✪✪

Domaine Guy et Olivier Alexandre Fourchaume Premier Cru 2013

Guess what? Green apples, but this time with lemons and lemon blossom, as well as quince, ginger, and salted almonds. A very pretty yet intense wine. From the right bank's Fourchaume vineyard, one of the better known of Chablis's Premiers Crus and whose name refers to its previous use as a hanging site. I was expecting the right bank to produce a richer wine than the first two, but in actual fact it was just as lean. ✪✪✪✪✪

La Chablisienne Montée de Tonnerre Premier Cru 2013

From Chablis's largest producer - a cooperative making 25% of the region's wines - and from another right bank climat, Montée de Tonnerre, which is west-facing and whose cool air produces fruit which slowly matures and results in austere wines. I certainly found it difficult to pick much out of the wine - some gooseberry and citrus - with a little creaminess on the palate from the small amount of oak used. Overall, a little too neutral for me. ✪✪✪✪

Domaine Long-Depaquit Vaucoupin Premier Cru 2013

Again on the right bank, this wine at first also seemed quite neutral but its greater concentration and intensity became apparent on repeated tastings. There was also some oak used - one- to five-years-old - which gave the wine a smoky, round richness but very well integrated with cinnamon and lemon pepper. There was power, structure, and balance, and a long finish which gave the lie to its initial neutrality. ✪✪✪✪✪

Domaine Vincent Dampt Côte de Lechet Premier Cru 2013

Back to the left bank for a wine which a had slight spritz (at least in my glass). There was an intense, difficult, concentrated character to this wine. There was some lemon zest and pear, but more important were the herbal (tarragon), floral (elderflower), and spice (cinnamon, ginger) aromas. The first line in my tasting notes reads: "I like this but hard to describe." The best of Chablis in a nutshell. ✪✪✪✪✪✪