I wrote about William Fevre Chablis in today’s Journal. It’s one of the four big producers of Chablis and has made some terrific wines over the years, though the style has changed. Once famous for rather rich wine aged in oak, the house now uses oak sparingly and as often one of the first to harvest, produces wines with juicy acidity – lean, clean, classic Chablis.
2007 and 2008 are vintages that express this character well. In some ways they look back a generation with a certain austerity, keen acidity and marked minerality. 2009 with its rich fruit and low acidity is very different.
Here are a few tasting notes I made on a visit to the domaine earlier this summer on some of Fevre’s top wines in 2008 and a couple of the 2007 Grands Crus.
Chablis 2008
Clean and fresh, with mouth-watering crisp, green apple fruit and a subtle minerality.
Chablis Premier Cru, Montmains 2008
Distinctly green tinged , with a floral perfume and a hint of white peach. Clean and quite light with some minerality, but not especially long.
Chablis Premier Cru, Vaillons 2008
Also quite green, but with much more pronounced minerality and a ripe apple flavour and crisp, piercing acidity. More finesse and length.
Chablis Premier Cru, Fourchaume, Vignoble de Vollorent 2008
Exotic and even spicy (nutmeg and cinnamon), with a lovely, steely minerality and a very long spicy finish.
Chablis Grand Cru, Les Preuses 2008
Very spicy again, but with richer fruit. Big and powerful, but also elegant, complex and mineral.
Chablis Grand Cru, Bougros 2008
Concentrated and very mineral, almost stony – gunflint and water on warm stones – fresh, powerful and long. A wine to delight geologists.
Chablis Grand Cru, Les Clos 2008
Big and ripe, with lime and an inherent softness not present in the other wines that leads into a lingering minerality. Very fine.
Chablis Grand Cru, Bougros 2007
Big stony wine, with spice, green herbs and a certain austerity. Strong, savoury, mineral and structured, with a creamy texture at the end.
Chablis Grand Cru, Les Preuses 2007
Great concentration of green apple fruit, but with a hint of white peach. Crunchily fresh, fine and long.
