Tasted in Fyé with Sébastien Christophe, 06 January 2022.

Domaine Christophe et Fils
Ferme des Carrieres
89800 Fyé
Tel: +33 3 86 55 02 83
More reports with Domaine Christophe et Fils

Sébastien on 2021:
“Yes, it’s hardly a third of a normal harvest here – it’s the lowest I’ve ever seen. The bottom of the valleys was not bad but as you rose the frost got stronger and stronger. The premiers were okay but there was less in Chablis and even less in Petit Chablis – only about 8 hl/ha… And this was the vintage that we started our conversion to organic – but everything was ready… The fortunate thing is that the wood is in great shape for the pruning for 2022…”

Sébastien on 2020:
“Viviers & Béru were cold but not fully frosted – but the recovery was slow – then a touch of hail in May. A larger hail came about a week before the harvest – some people brought forward their harvest because of that – we started around 4-5 September and in beautiful weather too – starting at 5am as the weather was rather warm. So, a complicated year but not in terms of treatments; we did about one-third fewer treatments as there were no pressures from disease. But our young vines of Petit Chablis on the plateau near Béridot, above Fyé, really struggled with the dryness – Fontenay, however, was fine. I find it a very good vintage. The wines bottled in April and they’ve only just started opening out again – I found them tight after bottling right up to December… Versus the 19s I find the 20s more direct and precise…”

The wines…

A vintage here where the wines show their proper steps from PC to Chablis to VV to 1er and then the GCs – it’s a very good vintage here! It’s the Chablis Vieilles-Vignes that excelled for me this year – it’s worth a special search!

Currently the wines are sealed with cork for the old-vine cuvée and the 1er crus, DIAM-style for the Petit Chablis and actual DIAM for the Chablis:

2020 Petit Chablis
Hmm – airy, fresh and floral. Plenty of width, concentration too – a little green in the mix here but generally a lovely shape and depth to this flavour – the finish is lovely – complex and engaging – yum!

2020 Chablis
More impact and more salinity to this nose – attractively accented with citrus fruit. Round, easy entry, saline, slightly sweeter too. There’s depth to this flavour – a little hint of green again but it’s a fine additional complexity Also very good – the finish is excellent!

2020 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
Like other years about 20% barrel elevage that’s assembled with the tank elevage before bottling in September.
A more compact nose but attractively and pure perfumed. This is a more structural shape and also. Like the VV it melts its flavour over the palate. A hint more austerity – but also authority – versus the VV but a super cascade of finishing flavour. Give this 2 years, it’s very good!

2020 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
A little more open than the Fourchaume – more vertical in style – also a fine floral perfume in the higher tones. Extra volume if not extra energy – really mouth-watering – more mineral than fruit but the citrus increases in intensity as you head towards the finish. Clarity and delicious in style. Also a little calmer in style but super complex and long in the finish. An extra richness – but only modestly so – the energy is with the Fourchaume today…

2020 Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnerre
Not a full-power nose but extra perfumed versus the previous. More vibrant, certainly with mouth-filling flavour. Expanding into a really great finish. A wine that’s modest to start and just gets better and better – overall an excellent wine today and it will, without doubt, keep getting better for a few years.

2020 Chablis Blanchot
Second vintage. The vines and wine worked for a client and Sébastien could keep a couple of barrels this year, actually 40% barrel in the elevage.
A nicely vibrant and complex nose. Fuller but a cascade of pure flavour, delivered with clarity. Not a fat GC but certainly with a little more richness and concentration. A broad and very impressive finish – complexity and showing lots of sustained energy. That’s a very good GC!

2020 Chablis Les Preuses
‘I find this a bit more accessible today’
Less direct impact from the nose but there’s super width and a slowly focusing and attractive complexity. More vibrant, a wine of fluidity – like the Chablis VV – depth and complexity here – modestly structured. The finish a little less demonstrative but haunting on a long narrower note versus the Blanchot. It should be, at least, excellent wine.