Tasted in Fleys with Lucie Thieblemont & Charly Nicolle, 07 January 2022.
Domaine Charly Nicolle
17, rue des Près Giraud
89800 Fleys
Tel: +33 3 86 42 80 08
www.chablis-charlynicolle.com
More reports with Domaine Charly Nicolle
Charly on the 2021:
“A third of a harvest – nearly! It’s hard for our stocks as we are having to allocate and clearly everyone knows the position but not everyone is happy – but what can we do…(?)”
Charly on the 2020:
“An easier vintage – and with a slightly lower harvest volume than we aim for – but nothing to worry about. It was an early harvest but still with a lovely freshness to the wines – they are wines with peps and balance. The purists will like this vintage.”
The wines…
Benchmark. So many benchmark wines – a mixed case from here – no problem!
Mainly, the 1er and grand crus were bottled in in December, the PC and Chablis in September:
From Molesmes – a new wine this year. ‘We’re not far from Epineuil – but the soils is very different and much redder there – here it’s obviously a white wine soil – it’s the Côte de Butteau here.’
Here’s a fine and wide nose of energy and invitation. Hmm – that’s a big, delicious mouthful of energy and flavour – a certain roundness but also a ripeness of fine flavour. Completely delicious wine – bravo!
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 little more direct and flinty. Hmm, that’s a wine that melts beautifully over the palate – faintly with a little grain of tannin. So delicious and melting with finishing flavour. Long and tasty – this is benchmark PC!
2020 Chablis Per Aspera
Usually about 12 hectares are represented by this wine. An assembly of hillside vines between Fourneaux and Mont de Milieu – together with vines from Beru – multiple vine ages included.
An extra airy freshness to this nose with a faint but attractive hint of green. Wider, more a line of mineral flavour here. Again melting beautifully over the palate. There’s concentration here – then another with absolutely delicious finishing flavour.
The name is Charly’s 1980 birthdate, but the (parcel selection) vines are older than that vintage. Vines of 40-60-years-old – from Fleys, Beru and Chichée
Hmm – narrower but deeper – wonderful clarity of aroma. More direct, more vibrant – top villages – this is a beauty. Benchmark!
2020 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. Here a tank sample…
The nose is tighter, less expressive. Faint gas but a wine of really super mineral width. That’s great in the mouth – really expressive and juicily delicious. It just needs the nose to open to be a great wine – I love this finish!
2020 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.
Also a little tight but there’s still more to find here, aromatically, than the last – open and nicely mineral in presentation. Broad, pure, melting with cool flavour – a tension to this wine – so delicious. Small waves of finishing flavour that lasts so well. It’s simply gorgeous…
Not so wide but there’s a lovely depth – a vibrant depth – of aroma. Ooh – lucid. Fluid, gorgeous shape and energy. Layered and complex I really don’t note the barrel elevage. That’s a great 2020…