2020 Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru

“There is no Petit Chablis this year,” Fabien Moreau lamented when I dropped in at his winery. “We cropped at around 21hL/ha subject to the parcel and that’s without frost protection. For Les Clos and Hospices we had 38hL/ha, where we used wax candles. We also shielded 1.5-hectares in Les Vaillons but the rest was just 10hL/ha. It was an early bud break so the vines were very exposed to the frost. We started picking on 20 September. It was strange to picking later with what you might call ‘old analyses’. We had to chaptalize, but not for the Les Clos. For example, Vaudésir, where we began harvesting, was just 11.7% even though we had only three barrels. I sold off more used barrels [due to the small volume] than usual, but obviously we had to keep some for 2022. The maximum length of time the barrels stayed empty was five months. The vinification was pretty normal with everything done by March. The bottling for the 2021s is in two weeks-time and the Grand Crus next January or February.”

When I returned to this excellent producer, whose winery is located in the heart of Chablis, next door to Domaine Servin, winemaker Fabien Moreau and his father Christian were keeping a stiff upper lip after what had already been a traumatic 2021. “We lost 80% of the crop in some sectors,” Fabien explained. “We will keep 30% of the volume to sell next year. It was the second night in 2021 that did the damage, when there was snow in some places.” In their new tasting room, I began by focusing on the 2019 vintage. “We started the picking on August 27, which was one day later than in 2003. But the conditions were different. There was a lot of hydric stress, which is why the wines don’t reach high alcohol levels – between 12.0° and 13.0° in alcohol, with 3.7 to 3.8 in terms of total acidity.” Moreau has been producing top-quality Chablis from 11.5 hectares of organically cultivated vineyards for several years now. Their 2019s are splendid, perhaps a little Raveneau-like in style, their Chablis Valmur outstanding and supremely well defined, the Vaudésir pipping the Blanchot despite a little wood that needs to be subsumed. That said, Moreau is very prudent with its oak use – just 5% for that particular cuvée. It is also worth checking out their 2019 Chablis Vaillons 1er Cru Cuvée Guy Moreau, from a single hectare planted by Christian Moreau’s father in 1933, which features hints of white peach and almond countered by superb nerve and tension. Turning to the 2020s, which were served as barrel samples, there is a lot of potential here, especially the slightly austere but complex 2020 Chablis Les Clos that to my mind may actually surpass their Clos des Hospices cuvée.