2021 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.”