Tasted in Fontenay-près-Chablis with Nathalie Fèvre, 26 January 2022.
Domaine Nathalie et Gilles Fèvre
Route de Chablis
89800 Fontenay-près-Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 18 94 47
www.nathalieetgillesfevre.com
More reports with Domaine Nathalie & Gilles Fèvre
Nathalie 2021:
“I got some sunburn in March and then, for most of the rest of the summer, I wore my jacket the whole time! Definitely less volume here than in 2016 or 2017 – we average 29 hl/ha. We are still part-way through organic certification and we made more than some who are ‘conventional.’ We’ve three tractors – why? To have the facility to treat everything in 6 hours – not over 2 days. Petit Chablis 5 hl/ha, Chablis 15 hl/ha, 1ers 30hl/ha and 40 for the grand crus – a year where, unsurprisingly, the most-protected delivered the most grapes.”
Nathalie 2020
“I think not easy to taste today as our bottling began last week. The Petit Chablis is already sold out. The Chablis had a big chunk bottled in October – the 1ers bottled last week. Practically a normal vintage – 50 hl/ha we can take each year. ”
The wines…
A great result. The wines are forward and structural, full of citrus bitters – it’s the marker of the vintage – but all show class and purity too. All will benefit from some patience in your cellar.
All are sealed with DIAM – and for 10 years now – even their larger-format bottles:
2020 Chablis
Narrow but deep – properly saline. Mouth-filling, energetic, framed with some tannin – lots of citrus skin, juicy flavour. A bravado performance but wait if you want a little calmer – I’d say 2+ years. This is certainly very good and it could become excellent
2020 Chablis Vieilles-Vignes
4th vintage – even some larger formats in this vintage. A mix of parcels, the youngest vines from 1965, the oldest are from 1941-42 – and they have 7-8 hectares available for this, but choose to make much less, as they don’t want to reduce the quality of their ‘basic’ Chablis. Mainly it’s a large parcel from Gilles’ parents that exited the Chablisienne in 2016. Bottled last week – about 10% barrel – 228s
A wider and more vibrant minerality – fresh bursts and flashes of bright citrus. Wider – super clarity and intensity – properly mineral and complex – again it’s the citrus bitters that are to the fore – a strong marker of the vintage – it’s very long too. Keep your powder dry – like the last – give this space to develop – or rather settle-down – in your cellar for a couple of years. Excellent wine.
Tank elevage.
A nose that’s more elegant, yellow-citrus and with some floral complexity too – becomes vibrantly mineral – or at least flashes of that. Mouth-filling, framed with fine tannin, so juicy – some citrus-bitters again. That’s potentially a great wine!
2020 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
In the centre of the vineyard. Négoce – only ‘domaine’ is missing from the label – all barrel elevage, none new with a mix of 228s and 500s.
A more compact nose – still with width and an in this case a very silky impression, very slowly adding some floral accents. Silken in the mouth – easily the most elegantly structured of all these wines – but still growing in shape, in density and mouth-watering layers of finishing flavour. Long, long. Already excellent
Bottled one week. A mix of wood and concrete ‘egg’
A much more open nose – lots of energy and dimension. Super in the mouth – more structural than the last, more overtly mineral, but just as silken as the Mont de Milieu. Cool mineral flavours. That’s a great wine
As usual a mix of tank and wood, bottled last week.
A broad nose of beautiful minerality – almost a suggestion of noble reduction. Mouth-filling – cool flavours, layers, indeed waves of flavour over the palate – this is another great wine – texturally lovely…
A contract
A full nose of fine mineral clarity and citrus complexity – though framed with an obvious oak note today. A hint of gas but what a beautifully direct, pure, fluid style to this wine no fat though lots of oak – so keep it locked away for a few years. Really, very long. Bravo!
Vines next to Willaim Fevre at the top of the slope.
Good width but vibrant depth – very mineral though a cushioned minerality. Gas again. Mouth-filling – super architecture. Layer after mouth-watering layer – no visible oak. That’s another great Preuses here – great finishing.