2022 Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru

“It’s a good clean vintage in 2022,” Australian-born winemaker Marc Cameron tells me as we taste through his range of wines. “The heat burnt down a lot of total acidity, which is lower than average with slightly above normal levels of alcohol. The pH’s are good, more balanced than even perhaps the 2020s, considering it comes from one of the hottest years in history. We started picking on August 31 for 10 to 12 days to keep the acidity, the yields were good, mostly around 58hL/ha, though Mont de Milieu was only 33hL/ha due to a little bit of frost. It was difficult to get pickers in 2022, and it will be the same this year. You have to start picking early in the morning, at around 7am. We’re getting more cooling tanks for future vintages. The Grand Crus and half the Premier Crus are picked by hand, the others picked by machine. The wines are better with the harvesting machine for the Petit Chablis and Chablis as we can pick at the right time in 12 days instead of three weeks. When it’s raining, we can stop.” Like their neighbor, Christian Moreau, I feel Servin is a rather under-estimated Chablis producer. I have experienced first-hand plenty of mature bottles that age better than you might suppose. Their 2022s are steered with Cameron’s touch as a winemaker, with some entry-level cuvées such as the Vieilles Vignes “Massale” well worth hunting down.