Tasted in Prehy with Vincent Wengier, 07 April 2021 – the second morning of the big frost…

Domaine Vincent Wengier
45 grande rue de Chablis, Prehy
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 41 41 54
www.chablis-wengier.fr

Vincent Wengier comes from a family of farmers, cereal/grain producers. He recounts that in the 1980s there was some grain-pricing crisis, whilst at the same time, Chablis was developing quite quickly – so his grandfather, around 1988, decided to plant vines – some additional planting has brought the domaine up from 13 hectares to 27 now.

For a time, all was sold in bulk to the Chablisienne but in 2018 the domaine – ie Vincent and his wife! – decided that they should start to commercialise some wine for themselves – in bottle. Their first sales were by word of mouth and then through their local networks. Today they are also exporting into Canada and Japan but the largest volume of the domaine’s production is still sold in bulk.

Here they also produce some Bourgogne Chardonnay and Aligoté – the former is quite common here, as a part of Prehy doesn’t qualify for the Chablis label. In 2020 they also harvested some pinot noir for another Bourgogne. Vincent says that in the future they may also add to the range with contracts for some 1er crus – ‘there’s a demand,‘ he says…

Vincent on 2019:
“It was a very sunny vintage so it wasn’t all that easy to hold onto the acidity – there was plenty at the start but by the end of the harvest it was on a lower level.”

The first year of conversion to organic viticulture was 2020 – so in 2023 the domaine will be certified – Vincent hopes.

The wines…

Here is a selection of largely ‘entry-level’ wines – but so very well made and delicious. These are some impressive wines for their level!

These 2019 wines were bottled in July:

2019 Bourgogne Aligoté
Like all the vines of the domaine from around Prehy
A roundness and freshness of citrus – a good invitation. Mouth-filling, silky, wide – growing with intensity – ooh – excellent aligoté – a certain sweetness is evident but this is totally delicious.

2019 Bourgogne Chardonnay
A more golden fruit in the aromas here. Wide, more mouth-filling – again with fine energy. A zesty finish nice line of citrus-skin bitters. Very classy Bourgogne which shows its local (Chablis!) routes.

2019 Chablis
A more floral aroma here – very Prehy! Extra concentration, Growing intensity – more mouth-watering and here is the first wine that has an obvious saline aspect too. I’d even go as far as to wait a couple of years for this – completely delicious, proper Chablis.