2020 Chablis Beauroy 1er Cru

I tasted the wines from William Fèvre with head winemaker Didier Séguier, as I have done for more than 20 years now. How time flies! The only change is that the bistro owned by Fèvre was sold to the owners of Le Soufflot in Meursault, and this branch of Maufoux (the other is in Beaune) now has an absolute killer wine list. Anyway, back to the wines. Here, I focused on the 2020 vintage, which is undergoing its barrel maturation. But first, I asked Séguier to summarize the growing season.

“The winter was rainy. We had 500mm during five months, compared to the previous year when it was 200mm. After that, bud break was early in March, and there were 10 nights of frost at the end of the month. Flowering was early, from the middle to the end of May. There was a little bit of coulure and millerandage. It was rainy in May and June – 90mm in June and 70mm in July. August was more clement, and we began picking on August 25, the first domaine in Chablis to start. The yield was not too bad – 25 to 30hl/ha, depending on the location – and the quality of the fruit was good, but we had some berries suffering grillure while others were a bit green. It is something specific to the 2020 vintage and depends on the bunches’ exposure to the sun. Maturity was 12.0° to 12.5–12.8°. The fermentation was normal, not quick. Malo arrived just after alcoholic, and by January it was completed. All the wines are in tank on the lees, waiting for bottling after 15–18 months, around next March. We started organic certification last year, though we have used organic viticulture for 15 years. I think 2020 has good potential. There is concentration and balance. Not high acidity, but there is freshness.”

Naturally, with 78 hectares of vines at your disposal, you have a lot more options than a winemaker dealing with a tiny cuvée. The practice of fermenting in a combination of stainless-steel and used wood has lent the range more consistency than before, though a few cuvées, such as the Beauroy, Vaillons, Fourchaume and Vaudésir, seemed to be swayed by the warm summer more than, say, the excellent Mont de Milieu, Montée de Tonnerre or Valmur.