Tasted in Chablis with Cyril Testut, 15 January 2020.
Domaine Testut
38, rue des Moulins
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 41 45 00
www.domaine-testut.fr
More reports for Domaine Testut
Cyril on 2019:
“I’m happy with the vintage, very happy with the quality – it’s more balanced and was easier to ferment than 2018, malos followed like they should and we’ve lovely acidity for such a warm vintage. I’m less happy with half a harvest but because of that there will be some richness.”
Cyril on 2018:
“In 2018, the main difference between this and 2019 was the amount of rain that we had at the start of the year. No frost or hail but the rain meant that the vines were never too stressed, the vines suffered much more in 2019. For me it’s a good vintage, I practically made the normal rendement as I’ve a lot of old vines. I’m very happy with the wines, there’s richness and energy, they are not opulent, they are balanced.”
The wines…
I have to hand it to Cyril, the first wines were good, the middle wines were very good and the last wines were completely great.
All DIAM today – nice long 54mm DIAM10 for the higher wines.
2018 Chablis Vieilles-Vignes
April bottled.
Rather a perfumed nose. Deep a suggestion of minerality at the base. Nice transparently lovely flavour – not a massive minerality, but a fine and insinuating finish.
2018 Chablis 1er Vaucoupin
This bottled in September.
Again a very perfumed, floral nose. A touch of oak but also a broad flavour of clarity. Long, more a resonance of finishing flavour but it holds very well, still plenty oak impression.
2018 Chablis 1er Vaillons
Some of the oldest vines, planted in the late 50s/early 60s. From Beugnons. The first small bottling of the 2018s, done in April.
Here a little more depth of aroma – a little vibration of energy to the minerality here. Nice volume in the mouth – no overt oak here, just energy, delicious fruit and a good base of minerality. This is simply excellent. Yum!
2017 Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnerre
A width of aroma but not so deep or high. Ooh, nice shape in the mouth again – clarity, bubbling with energy, nothing overt but so composed and delicious – playful almost – on the palate. Another really excellent wine!
0.20 ha of 80-year-old vines, the same age as Beugnons. Only replaced with massale selections.
A little more power to the aroma here. Now that’s Chablis – big, it’s a wine of quite some scale – a wine of minerality, very faintly saline – what a wine – bravo!
0.32 hectares – the high part with the other producers – Chablisienne has all the lower part. Father planted in the 60s. 2002 was the first vintage here for Cyril and that was a bigger vintage in terms of volume than he wanted, so worked since then on the soil – and there’s not a lot up there, and in recent years he’s had it ploughed by horse. ‘Today I’m happy with the balance in the plants. But whilst there’s magic in certain parcels, you have to work to unlock that magic!’
A more vibrant – and open – depth of aroma. Not the same mouth-filling scale, but here there is more direct and intensity, more mouth-watering minerality, an extra vibrancy of finishing flavour. That’s great – give both of these last two wines some time – there are ample rewards to be had!
