Tasted in La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne with Romain and Antoine Bessin, 10 March 2023.
Domaine Bessin-Tremblay
11 rue des Cours
89800 La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne
Tel: +33 3 86 42 46 77
More reports for Domaine Bessin-Tremblay
Romain & Antoine on 2022:
“We’re happy with 2022. Only average yields in the 1er crus but the volume was better in both the Chablis and the grand cru. I like the maturity and the balance looks really good.”
Romain & Antoine on 2021:
“2021 was very rainy – luckily around September it was drier. The pressure from oïdium had been severe, of course, only with what was left to us after the frost, so we saw yields as low as 8 hl/ha in Forets and an average of just 20 for the domaine. The last bottlings were done only a month ago. I like the drinkability of these wines and I think that you can enjoy them young – but we have only 4 cuvées this year; Our Forêts was blended into the Montmains and our ‘Piece au Comte’ in the classic Fourchaume.”
The wines…
Beautiful wines rather than ‘great’ wines if that makes sense – all of which I’d be very happy to have in my cellar. Of course, with their 2021 volumes you will be lucky to find some!
2021 Chablis Vieilles-Vignes
A nice breadth of aroma, finely complex. Hmm, the flavours are much more active over the palate – complex and attractive – not a powerful wine but a contemplative one with beautiful finishing complexity – it’s excellent – persistent too.
2021 Chablis 1er Montmains
More perfumed – an almost textured width of aroma again. Super depth – more vertical flavours, gorgeous wine, slightly cushioned. Slightly creamy finishing – beautiful Montmains!
2021 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
Vines located in the heart of Fourchaume. Elevage was 30% barrel and 70% tank.
Extra fresh extra purity and complexity and freshness too, no golden fruit here. Clean, silky, with depth of flavour, a tiny grain of tannin too. The flavour in the finish is very clean almost with a hint of mandarin in this fine finish. Beautiful!
2021 Chablis Valmur
25 hl/ha
Narrower but supremely fine, pure fruit aromatics. Extra minerality, extra breadth, the tannin a hint more visible but even finer grained – the most saline but still full of fine agrume. Intense in the finish thats another simply super wine.
And for the road:
2012 Chablis Vieilles-Vignes
Thats lovely (again!) finely developed complexity here – slightly dried leaves in the mix. Supple, concentrated. Intense finishing great wine – tarte au citron but with the vanilla pastry too.
There were 3 different cork styles on test here in 2012 vintage, this sealed with diam10
Less aged but beautifully direct – really great aromatics! Quite structural still but the structure, with the flavour, melts over the palate with a mix of complexity, salinity and sucrosity. Still some finishing bitters – great wine!
2012 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
Cork sealed.
There’s an extra volume of aroma, but actually not much aromatic development here. More comfortable, supple, broad – more agrumed interest in the flavour – super long and still grained by the tannin.
Much larger scale – gorgeous, vibrant ready wine – what a nose! In the mouth too, vibrant, almost a lime-style to the flavour ripe, long – maybe less long than the 12 but impressive – now slightly creamy finishing.
2004 Chablis Valmur
Deeper, very open aromatics – green pea. In the mouth texturally suave and broad – very complex and spiced but far from delicious. A wine to talk about, to engage with other tasters – maximum fun despite not being a wine for you to drink alone.