2021 Chablis Les Butteaux 1er Cru

Edouard Vocoret met me at the winery to guide me through a small portfolio of 2021s. Together with his wife Eleni, the Vocorets have become symbols of welcome new blood in Chablis. Vocoret told me how they have been delving into the geology of their holdings. “We have an explanation about the way the Boucheran evolves because two-thirds is on the yellow marl soils whereas Les Pargues is on white grey marl. We talked to geologists who told us that the yellow marl is more oxidized, explaining how Boucheran can be more aromatically intense compared to Les Pargues that tends to be austere. The season started with the spring frost. We lost two-thirds on the Left Bank and one-third on the Right Bank, but the yield was around 32hL/ha. It was a juicy year so the yields were higher than we anticipated yet our normal 160 barrels is halved this year.”