Tasted in Chablis with Camille Besson, 26 January 2024.
Domaine Besson
8 chemin de Valvan
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 42 40 88
www.domaine-besson.com
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Camille on 2023 & 2022:
“2023 had an enormous mildew pressure, so unlike in 2022 we had to do treatments. of course. We got through it but it was a big concern. In the end the quality was good – and like everyone, we had good volume. After 21 we have to say that 22 is good we have some wine – a correct volume from clean grapes with nice maturity. I think that the grapes were properly ripe despite starting to harvest 31st August; my father has now experienced 3 of his 35 vintages in August – I’ve only done 9 and I’ve seen two. The PC and C are the only wines that have been bottled – I will stay with my 18 months of elevage so it will be March-April for the 1er and grand cru bottlings.”
The wines…
Camille makes excellent to great wines with superb consistency – bravo!
Camille’s Petit Chablis and Chablis were bottled but the rest were tank samples:
2022 Petit Chablis
A lovely vertical nose of energy and clarity. Broad, cool, fine energy – that’s a delicious wine – of lovely energy and lovely extra complexity too. A super PC!
2022 Chablis
Wider and more vibrant citrus aromas. Mouth-filling, larger scale but open and juicy flavoured. The finish is more linear and minerally intense – it has a perfumed aspect at the same time – I love it!
The following tasted from tank samples:
2022 Chablis 1er Vaillons
Mainly Beugnons but also Chatains and Sechets, 2.45 hectares. not particularly high, more mid-slope – the vines don’t suffer so much here as there’s a ‘source.’ Have another 0.3 ha of Chatains. The aim is for 18 months of elevage.
Hmm – a lovely purity of citrus here – good width and aromatic invitation. Large scale again, perfumed in the mouth, open and exciting – it needs to come together a bit more – but it will – lovely wine with a fine subtle minerality!
2022 Chablis 1er Montmains
Mainly from Butteaux plus a little Forêt, about 5.25 hectares worth. ‘For us it the more mineral and typical Chablis style.’ One 600l new barrel included in the vinification here – there’s still no more than 8% wood in the total.
Here is a lovely nose that’s fizzingly broad. A little more density – more minerlaity too – here is a concentrated wine – the focus is there unlike the Vaillons but it’s less open today. This needs time too but I think it has a great future.
2022 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
0.99 ha – but never with much of a harvest as there’s some court-noué virus in the vines – mid-slope, plain south orientation, close to the forest at the top and next to Montée de Tonnerre – always very small grapes here and it’s difficult to vinify.
More perfumed higher tones. Hmm, this is softer, more supple the oak is hardly visible except for softening the edges of the shape. This finishes in a quiet but very long style. It will be a lovely MdM…
1.4 hectares, in the domaine over 25 years. Both exposures, looking towards La Moutonne. Have about 10 vines in this parcel that are actually in Grenouilles – just the way the borders were drawn – producing less than 20 litres of juice so included in this cuvée – but here’s a rare holding!
Much more direct, intense, linear – wow – that’s good. Mouth-filling, super wide, accented with salinity and wedded in its base of minerality – with a ‘next-level’ of finishing persistence. It’s comfortable wine so it’s hard to say austere, but that’s an idea of how this wine currently shows – but it will be great – it gives that promise!
2022 Chablis Les Clos
0.15 ha – ‘5 rows and we’ve never make the rendement, since 2008! Quite high on the hill about 50m below the viewing table. Roughly 40-year-old vines – same as the Vaudesir. Every year it’s a small harvest – 600l – but it was only 300 in 2022 – so this year 100% oak…
Perfumed today – a fine blend of flowers and complex citrus. A more supple wine of extra generosity but with super finishing style and with successive waves of flavour – that’s a great finish and certainly a bit less austere than the Vaudésir today – you could drink and enjoy this today – no problem. But I think I might, today, buy the Vaudésr !!