Tasted in Chablis with Valérie Beaufumé, 23 January 2020.
Domaine Beaufumé
5 rue des Vignes
89800 Lignorelles
Tel: +33 3 86 47 56 32
More reports for Domaine Beaufumé
Valérie on 2019:
“We had some small touches of frost but not much, lots of millerandes due to a cold flowering. A -t least it was a very clean year in the vines, but still so much less volume in 2019 but to help is the VCI from the 2018 vintage. 2019 a vintage where we changed a little how we harvest – we started 13-14 September – and it was very hot, so we started to harvest about 4am and be finished before lunchtime – so the juice wasn’t so warm. I thought that maybe the juice was a little fragile but the fermentations were rapid and I didn’t need to increase my SO2 – all was done so quickly – much more so than in 2018. I think that the wines have good concentration – no surprise given the dry summer. One or two cuvées I chose to correct the acidity where I’d waited a little longer for maturity – if I couldn’t find a good compromise I didn’t hesitate to correct – 20g per hectoliter isn’t a lot. Malos are already done and the wines are racked with their fine lees. I think it’s a good vintage with some richness – some cuvées seem a little more exotic fruited than others. I think the wines might keep longer than some of the 18s as I think there’s a better structure.”
Valérie on 2018:
“The wines started very aromatic and pleasant, I think they have started to close a little since bottling, and it’s also my first Petit Chablis that has been bottled here. I bottled a little early, starting in Springtime – normally it’s closer to the harvest – I felt that the wines were already showing very well and why wait another 4 months! ”
The wines…
Floral, fresh, elegant but classic… Like every year so far!
DIAM-style seals:
2018 Petit Chablis
From Chemin de Chablis just out of the village in front of the domaine.
A fine and modest colour. That’s got a lovely floral freshness and almost a touch of cushioning. A little prickle of gas. Open, mineral and fresh. Nice more green citrus flavour, ripples of finishing flavour too – a little riper here, very long, slowly mouth-watering. That’s excellent.
2018 Chablis
From Les Crais on the plateau of Lignorelles here. Also bottling in another month.
A fresher, more mineral nose. Lovely freshness, ripe fruit but no fat, depth with a growing weight of flavour, nicely, vibrantly heading through the middle and finishing flavours. More fruit than mineral in the finish – but delicious fruit.
Not all is currently bottled – this tasted from tank. A part of this is the same origin as the cuvée that is bottled.
More mineral again, perhaps a modest reduction – but the combination is super! More vibrant and open, beautiful Chablis, long, faintly saline finish, slightly sherbet finish. Bravo.