Tasted in Fleys with Lucie Thieblemont & Charly Nicolle, 14 January 2021.
Domaine Charly Nicolle
17, rue des Près Giraud
89800 Fleys
Tel: +33 3 86 42 80 08
www.chablis-charlynicolle.com
More reports for Domaine Charly Nicolle
Charly on the 2019:
“There’s a freshness in the 2019s that you don’t find in the 2018s though the acidities are actually similar. It’s a year that I adore, it was easy to ferment, always easy to taste – for someone who vinifies it was a dream vintage – it wasn’t like that in 2018! We started with great grapes – it wasn’t a full volume vintage, like 2018 but 45-50 hl/ha – I would rather say a correct volume. It was just the sun that reduced the volume of juice a little – we weren’t frosted – it’s a vintage for both ethusiasts and learners. ”
The wines…
Alwas a safe pair of hands here; great entry wines and the rest of the range is excellent in 2019…
The 2019s were mostly bottled at the end of last year so Charley preferred to open the wines the night before:
From plateau above Fleys and Chichée – No frost as on the summit of the plateau – it was the bottom of the hill that got hit. The only PC in Fleys, it’s surrounded by Chablis and was declassified from Chablis a few years ago – some red clay here. This and the Chablis sealed with DIAM.
A wide and open nose with plenty of volume and some yellow-citrus energy. Concentration, mouth-watering and mineral. Wide and beautifully mouth-watering in the finish – super long and pure. Great PC.
2019 Chablis Per Aspera
Usually about 12 hectares represented by this wine.
A similar style of nose, just the shape changes here with much extra width. Richer, and deeper fruit – certainly riper and sweeter but beautifully textured style, minerality and nicely mobile flavour over the palate. I love the clarity and easy, delicious, style of this. Wide and fine in the long finish.
These two are playing with me with their cuvée names! The name is Charly’s 1980 birthdate, but the (parcel selection) vines are older that than vintage. Vines of minimum 40 years-old. The third vintage for this wine.
Deep, fresh, more mineral – less fruity width. Fresher, cooler fruit, layers of delicious mouth-watering fruit. Really fine a finesse rather than weight – bravo – absolutely delicious.
2019 Chablis 1er Les Fourneaux
Two parcels overlooking the village of Fleys – directly opposite the winery with yellow clay soil – steep, south-facing, and very warm in the summer. Vine ages between 20 and 50-years-old
A fine complexity and purity of yellow-citrus – fresh though guarded. A touch more concentration with some faint tannin at the base. That’s also a very elegant wine despite fine concentration. Super
2019 Chablis 1er Les Fourneaux Ante MCMLXXX
Again a parcel selection with vines of a minimum 40 years of age – ‘we don’t like writing Vieilles-Vignes’
A higher level of aroma here in both quantity and attractiveness. Extra mineral, a little saline too. Considered, but quite enough energy. Contemplative. Really excellent wine.
2019 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
Also direct south-facing with less clay than Fourneaux but with more limestone. The domaine’s oldest vines are here, ‘but we don’t have a separate VV cuvée, as it’s all old vines here – they are nearly all older than me!’ 55-68-years-old.
That’s a wide and finely complex nose – very attractive. A little fat, mouth-filling, but such a lovely depth of meltingly pure, citrus-accented minerality. That’s the best finish of all these too. A really excellent
2019 Chablis Bougros
A nose that’s a little tight in the higher tones but quite wide and mineral in the depth. That’s a beautiful cushioned width of citrus-accented minerality. There’s extra depth to this flavour but not density – it remains, open, accessible and really like the rest of the cellar a wine with lovely finesse.
2019 Vézelay
Another contract. A mix of tank and 30% barrel – 500-litre barrel, none new. It’s only the PC that sees no barrel elevage – the 1ers have 400-litre, the rest 500s.
An extra, higher, freshness, still with attractive citrus. Wider, mouth-filling an easier style – less structured but still with the same spirit, esprit, of these other wines from the north. Absolutely delicious.
