2017 Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru

Moreau was my first appointment in Chablis this year. Fabien and Christian Moreau showed me all of their 2018s and virtually all of their 2017s, save the Blanchot of which there was just one barrel. As always, most of the wines are aged in a combination of stainless steel and oak. The 2018s were blended in April and racked back into tank in preparation for bottling, which was to take place between September 2019 and January 2020. Expressive and inviting, the 2018s show quite a bit of potential along with the forward personality of the year. The 2017s are more precise and also lower in alcohol. The wines have terrific energy to go with the textural richness that is such a signature here. Sadly, frost inflicted heavy losses, especially in the Grand Crus, where yields were down a whopping 70%. Yields in Valmur were 9hl/ha, while in Vaudésir they were closer to 8hl/ha. As mentioned above, in Blanchot, Moreau made just a single barrel of wine. The 1er Cru Vaillons fared quite a bit better. There, yields were down only 10%.

Stupidly I overlooked Domaine Christian Moreau when organizing my itinerary. Thankfully one apologetic phone call and a bit if itinerary shuffling enabled me to visit on my final day. I am glad it worked out, because Moreau is a great, quite consistent producer of Chablis. Winemaker Fabien Moreau, Christian’s son, explained the vintage. “The 2017 production was of small volume. We lost 65% of production, worse than in 2016. For the Chablis we picked at 35 hl/ha and Vaillon at 48hl/ha since just one hectare was touched by frost however, the Grand Crus represent the smallest production ever. For example, we cropped just 8hl/ha in Valmur. We were able to use candles in Les Clos so we picked at 22 hl/ha. We used them for eight nights, but the vines spent so many hours at 0° or -1° Celsius that they suffered a lot of fillage. Even during the day it was quite cold so that after six nights everyone was tired. Usually we sell some wine in bulk because we don’t have the space in the winery, but this year we kept everything.”