2017 Chablis Beauroy 1er Cru

There really is no better place to get a read on Chablis than Fèvre because the range is so vast. Winemaker Didier Séguier describes 2018 as a sunny vintage. “The key in years like 2018 is to pick early,” he explained. “In the end, 2018 is a ripe year, like 2015 or 2009, but without the excesses of 2003.” Harvest started on September 3. As readers will see from these notes, the 2018s showed quite well. Moreover, I found the wines to be quite expressive of site, which is not the case at every address. The 2017s are the result of a challenging vintage marked by 8-9 days of brutal cold and poor weather during flowering. Séguier adds that the fruit was very clean at harvest. The 2017s are brilliant across the board. Readers will find wines with tons of energy, freshness and verve, all typical of a classic vintage for Chablis.

My relationship with this Chablis stalwart goes back well beyond my writing days, since I used to sell William Fèvre’s wine to the Japanese market in the late 1990s. Fèvre is a major producer that boasts one of the most impressive arrays of Premier and Grand Crus. Didier Séguier has been head winemaker for several years now. Under Séguier guidance, the Domaine veered away from their rather zealous oak regime to a more prudent approach that mixes barrel ageing with stainless steel. Settling down in the tasting room opposite their own popular bistro, I began by asking Didier about the growing season in 2017.

“There were ten nights with frost at the bottom of the top of the slope,” he explains. “We were particularly affected on the Right Bank and less on the Left Bank. We used sprinklers to protect the vines and very efficient electric cables in Vaudésir, which we expanded to Les Preuses starting in 2018. We are the first estate to start working with the electric wires with Long-Depaquit, but we still use candles. After the frost, the weather was good. The summer was not very warm but the quality of the grapes just before the harvest was perfect even if the quantity was 30% to 50% less than normal. The grapes are concentrated with good acidity, similar to 2014. It is a classic vintage with good freshness and density. For us, it is a vintage for ageing, but the harvest date was important because you could obtain some sweetness if you picked late. There was no botrytis on the sorting table and the wines have the freshness and precision they showed then.” These are reliably consistent wines. I have encountered one or two reductive issues with bottles in recent years and therefore they do warrant decanting if possible.