Tasted with Guillaume Vrignaud in Fontenay-près-Chablis, 30 January 2024
Domaine Guillaume Vrignaud
10 Rue de Beauvoir
89800 Fontenay-près-Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 42 15 69
www.domaine-vrignaud.com
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More reports with Domaine Guillaume Vrignaud
Guillaume on 2023:
“We made a great harvest. I was worried about the mildew, though in the end it wasn’t so bad – we were lucky for that and the volume. Because the grapes were quite clean there were no problems in the cuverie – it’s the first year since 2015 that the natural yeasts started fermenting so quick – I was already racking in November. For the first time in 2023 I have a little VCI in the three categories of wines! 22 was, for us, a more normal level of volume.”
Guillaume on 2022:
“It was different! We started harvesting in Fourchaume, 29th August – so very early! I’d rather go early to preserve some acidity – but I still had good degrees for such an early vintage 12-12.2°. Lots of fruit flavour and aroma in this vintage. I made some early bottlings of Petit Chablis and Chablis though just about everything else is still in tank – but they are pretty much ready – we have some time as it’s the calm time of the year. The market is still very good for our Chablis – and particularly in France – but I’m sure some of the north-European markets are still living off the large stocks they bought during Covid times!”
The wines…
Such a rewardingly delicious range in 2022 from Guillaume – I would be more than happy with a blindly mixed dozen of these wines – just ultra delicious!
DIAM since 2008 – not the whole range that year but the rest of the range quickly followed.”
2022 Petit Chablis
On the Portlandian Plateau des Clos – 4.7 hectares. Only 10 hl/ha – it was very badly hit by the frost.
Broad and fresh – that’s a very attractive nose – bottled in June. Supple, silky but generously flavoured a hint of fat but with balancing juicy fruit – that’s a wonderful Sweet-n-Sour flavour profile. Yes – excellent, delicious wine!
9 different parcels – all around Fontenay – all separate elevage. Many of types of soil. Plenty of massale selections too, representing 12 ha. ‘I delayed the bottling as it wasn’t so balanced but I’m happy with it now that it’s in bottle:’
More direct and much more perfumed – that’s a great Chablis invitation. Large scale in the mouth – just as juicy as the Petit Chablis. The minerality is quite hidden behind the juiciness, only a subtle salinity but wow this is delicious. With the caveat of the minerality which should slowly come to express itself more forcefully – though it may take 3-4 years – that’s a great wine!
None of the following were bottled:
2022 Chablis Les Champreaux
A single parcel of 2.68 hectares – though not all is bottled under this label. Barrel elevage (30%) – 500-litre barrels – ‘if I leave this in tank it has a tendency to become reductive – this avoids that.’ – To bottle in a couple of months.
A calmer freshness but this aroma still has plenty of width. I sense a wine that’s more direct with more visible minerality – and that’s despite the rounding of the palate by the barrels. Less juicy but perhaps with a little, calmer, extra length…
2022 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
All tank elevage. ‘Old vines never the rendement.’
A really broad nose of ripe but fresh yellow citrus – it has an attractive airy quality to it too. Also a wine that’s rounded by its elevage – but large in scale and quite concentrated – though balanced by plenty of energy. This finish has a little orange fruit flavour too – I always love that!
2022 Chablis 1er Les Vaupulant
Elevage in 500-litre barrels and (70%) tank. ‘I like a little reduction but the wood brings the balancing oxygenation that I look for.’
A vertical nose whose base vibrates with super and quite mineral energy – fresh at the top – this is a great invitation. Sleek, mineral, melting – great texture. The oak is present – texturally – but there’s not too much flavour. If you can, wait 2-3 years before drinking these as the oak flavour slowly starts to show itself int the finish. – ‘I’m really enjoying the 2015s right now – I think 8 years is super for a 1er cru.’ Such an excellent wine – and it’s sneakily, attractively, long too!
2022 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
0.28 hectares worth, here only tank elevage. It’s an exchange for Fourchaume grapes – in this case not an organic vineyard.
Hmm – that is not a large nose but it shows clean, almost linear aromas of fruit with a touch of minerality. Broad and silky, a wine with presence and plenty of concentration. This is how I like my MdM – ie without oak. Lovely wine.
50% jar elevage, the rest in tank. To bottle in March. There is usually a strong identity to this wine which I don’t want to hide behind barrels.
Some linear style to this wine – a core or ripe citrus but carried by a good minerality. Broad over the palate – an almost airy, fluid, style to these flavours. We have energy and we have concentration – but that concentration is largely hidden by the energy. A complex agrume finish – again suggesting some orange fruit. I think that will be a beauty – but wait 5 years – unless you manage to bag multiple cases 😉 Top!