Tasted in Chablis without newly retired Hervé Tucki, stepping into the breach were Olivier Masmondet & Vincent Bartement, 28 January 2021.
La Chablisienne
8, Boulevard Pasteur
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 42 89 89
www.chablisienne.fr
More reports for La Chablisienne
Vincent on 2019:
“From a quality perspective it was a super vintage. The year was relatively easy – much less volume, of course, than the 2018 vintage we are following, where there was plenty of wine. We didn’t exactly have frost but there was a long period of cold at the start of the year. The heat came, of course, with two periods of canicule – which destabilised the maturity – or at least the consistency of the maturity. The sugar was always there but not always the phenolic ripeness – we began to harvest 09 September.”
The wines…
There’s a coherence to the wines here in 2019 – all very good to excellent and showing the fresh citrus often mineral style of the vintage – I usually note a number of great wines, for whatever reason this year there are fewer – but the average quality remains very high – and consistently so!
2018 was the year where La Chablisienne embraced DIAM seals – they’ve been testing since 2010. 2017 was the transition year so a few grand crus may have been bottled with cork, but now it’s all DIAM 5 and 10 – except in 2019 where there is some Nomacorc use in the Petit Chablis. The first four wines are bottled – the rest are all tank samples:
2019 Petit Chablis Dame Nature
That’s a nice nose with plenty of floral character. Full, a certain richness to this volume but always with energy. A powerful finish too. That’s impressive.
2019 Petit Chablis Pa Si Petit
Another nose that’s nicely energetic, open and quite floral. More driving in style. A narrower finish but long – I prefer the shape of this wine – it’s more than very good.
2019 Chablis Dame Nature
Organic vines, all tank elevage.
A narrow but fine nose – not obviously floral at the start. Fresh – open and mineral – a fine and classic Chablis – very good, persistent wine!
2018 Chablis Le Finage
Multiple origins, of-course with a tank elevage like the previous Petit Chablis(s).
The return of the florals on the nose. Extra direct, less overtly sweet, beautifully mouthwatering. A wine for keeping – but a very good one – the finish is simply lovely…
In tank. Some old vine parcels in here. Parts with a little elevage in wood.
That’s a great nose, deep, vibrant and mineral – yes! Wider but still direct, just a little more cushion of sucrosity today. Energetic quite saline too. That’s excellent wine – well done!
2019 Chablis Les Verrillats
A nose that’s fresh but more deeply citrus-fruited – a greener, fresher citrus. Vibrant and mouth-filling, more subtle in the finish, but wide and deliciously deeper finishing.
2019 Chablis 1er Beauroy
Beauroy and a little Troesmes
That’s a lovely nose of width, aromatic dimension and mineral depth – super. Here is fresh concentration – there’s width here too – with lots of finishing agrume flavour. That’s a very good wine.
2019 Chablis 1er Côte de Léchet
The biggest 1er cru cuvée of La Chablisienne
A less forward yellow-citrus nose. Mouth-filling and with energy too – a more mineral-style of wine, accented with lemon-citrus. Zesty citrus bitters to finish. Very tasty and fine.
2019 Chablis 1er Vaillons
That’s lovely – a vibrant depth of yellow citrus – that’s very inviting. Super starting, intense, a suggestion of extra grapefruit in the agrume flavour – saline in the finish. Long too. That’s really excellent.
2019 Chablis 1er Les Lys
Also a part of Vaillons – of-course. Only old wood here – 6 years or so, but the flavour is visible – the Vaillons had a small amount of new oak but it wasn’t visible.
A large-scale aromatic – aided by a little wood but lots of energy and attraction here. Extra wide, super energy – wait for the oak to fade – a year or maybe a little more – but here’s a super wine of mineral energy, nicely finishing. Excellent again.
2019 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
Vaupulent and Côte de Fontenay
Vibrant but riper and wider lemon-citrus. Mouth-filling – there’s density of flavour here – concentration. Very tasty flavour, finishing very long on the palate too. Very good Fourchaume.
2019 Chablis 1er l’Homme Mort
Here’s a less forward nose but of fine and engaging complexity – flora, citrus and an impression of more minerality in the depth too. A small grain of tannin and a wider freshness than apparent in the Fourchaume – much more incisive wine. Subtly complex finishing. Excellent.
2019 Chablis 1er Vaulorent
That’s a super nose – not so wide but deep and vibrant with attractive minerality. Mouth-filling flavour, that’s a super, very tasty wine.
The only 1er in bottle – just recently done. 80% Butteaux, a little Forêts and a little Montmains too! ‘Here is more clay, here comes more volume, it’s about the roots not the sun!’
A little extra citrus bitters on the nose here. Here is width and fresh energy – the bitters of the nose visible in citrus-skin flavours. I think that’s super – give it two or three more years to improve ‘accessibility’ but it has a lovely finish – showing longer than many. Bravo!
2019 Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnerre
Wider, easier, nice depth though – a silkier style of nose. Big in the mouth, an accent of oak. That’s got a nice zip and subtle finishing complexity – a little discrete in the finish – but very tasty wine, no question.
2019 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
A subtler nose, not quite timid but finer boned and with pretty complexities. More incisive, lots of fine complexity – that’s a wine that opens wider and wider in the finish. Discrete yet great finishing.
2019 Chablis Bougros
Higher in Bougros next to Preuses
A larger-scaled aromatic – plenty of ripe fruit concentration still with an accent of the barrels. Mouth-filling – there’s wine here – still an obvious mineral side to this wine. But the flavour is deep, textured and almost a little caramel accented in the finish. It’s a very long finish too.
2019 Chablis Blanchots
A more vibrant nose – freshness and depth of ripe fruit – the oak more subtle here. I like the shape here more than Bougros – more direct – concentrated with a couple of mm of richness to the texture, but melting and still somehow incisive despite the concentration. I find this way more interesting than the Bougros today.
2019 Chablis Les Preuses
That’s a nose with a deep and slightly reductive minerality. Mouth-filling, cool-fruited, layered, long – discrete finishing but super long. Really excellent wine.
2019 Chablis Les Clos
The high-part – roughly in the middle of the vineyard. Two parcels assembled.
There’s more of a citrus-skin depth to this nose than minerality – very inviting though. Extra energy, a vibration of energy. Some sweetness but more minerality. Nicely long. Fine wine…
More airy and more clarity of aroma too. Cool, direct, powerful, but with a purity of fine flavour, salivation, salinity – more openly complex in the finish than the last wine. It merits its place in the tasting again – Bravo!