Tasted in Chemilly with Loïc Vilain, 13 May 2024.
Château de Chemilly – Vilain Frères
20 Rue du Pont
89800 Chemilly-sur-Serein
Tel: +33 3 86 42 16 91
chateaudechemilly.fr
More reports with Château de Chemilly
Loïc on 2024, so far…
“We have 10 hectares damaged by frost and another 5 in the 1ers – we think are lost due to the hail. Let’s see how the year develops. We have 65 hectares in total with our new plantations – the frost was mainly in the Coteaux Bourguignons (Vermenton) and the Bourgogne – our first vintage here was 2022 including the pinots too. The hail was in Chichée and all of our Chablis… The growth, post hail, is still a little timid… and the big storm was already the 4th wave of hail this year around Chichée…”
Loïc on 2023:
“Happy – good acidities despite the maturity – volume too – they taste well. It was a hot vintage to work, of course, so we had to work hard to keep the fermentations cool…”
The wines…
An unusual approach but delicious wines all the same – really a bargain too if you see these labels in the supermarket…
Only the last 2 wines are ‘vintage’ – they like the extra roundness that combining 2 vintages brings – “Particularly the consistency for the supermarkets… The blend of 20 and 21 we liked a lot. We mix more than 15% of the second vintage into the blend, hence, we’re no longer allowed to note a vintage on the labels – we make a more Champagne-style blend !! It surprised a lot of people but has not affected our sales… The quality is more regular and the price too!”
Coteaux Bourguignons Chardonnay NV
The nose is airy, faintly herbed but attractive. Juicy, large and energetic in the mouth – a little boiled sweet complexity – simply delicious and made from only 5-6-year-old vines – lots of finishing persistence to this flavour, lightly textured in the finish. Lovely…
From 43 hectares in Vermenton
A larger scale of fresh aroma – it’s a fine invitation. Larger in the mouth too but still with good shape – juicy and with lots of energy. A wine of clarity and good sweet-sour ripeness of flavour – it’s really wide and persistent – a great Bourgogne – though I’ve no reference points with other NVs!!
Petit Chablis NV
A little smaller nose but with finesse. More direct, clearly more mineral with a growing intensity – there’s a structure here and a salinity to go with the ripe lime fruit – lightly chalky texture in the finish too. Give it another year it will be lovely!
Chablis NV
This from 2023 exclusively this year…
Here is extra depth of aroma – a good blend of yellow and green citrus. More incisive and with extra saline width, a lovely vibration of open finishing flavour – a subtly austere minerality – strict and I like it !!
Lighter but wide aromas, more airy salinity here. In the mouth, open, airy, almost fluid – little fireworks in this finishing flavour and then a sustained width that has an old-vine creaminess. Simply excellent wine, potentially a great villages in an airy, rather than intense style.
2022 Chablis 1er Cru Grand Reserve
Mainly Vosgros, planted by parents. Since 2013 also a small parcel of Vaucoupins. ‘The largest part of our clients preferred without wood so in the end we chose the blend the two, without wood.’ DIAM 10 here.
A similar style to the VV but with a more visible spine of structure – very nice! Ooh yes – incisive, more intense, the spine like the nose is more overt and offers lovely energy with a wave of finishing flavour that’s capped with plenty of salinity – classic, delicious Chablis.