2015 Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru

As is his habit, director/winemaker Didier Séguier started the harvest early in 2016 (on September 16) to preserve acidity. “Otherwise the wines would have been too soft,” he explained. The rain on September 15 had “unblocked” the maturity and the estate harvested with potential alcohol ranging from 12% to 13% owing to the very low yields (Fèvre made just 40% of a normal year in 2016, and much less in vineyards hit hard by frost and hail). Very little chaptalization was necessary. Séguier told me that acidity levels in the 4 to 4.2 grams-per-liter range are comparable to those of the ‘15s.

Séguier finds the young ‘16s “very pure and delineated, with no deviation. They show reductive shellfish notes and good minerality. And they’re dense and concentrated due to the low crop levels.” In comparison, he went on, the 2015s are fruity, silky wines, not as minerally early as the ‘16s “but the minerality will come with three or four years of aging. The wines are very ripe and the fruit dominates, but I wouldn’t call 2015 an atypical vintage. I prefer 2016 today but I may prefer 2015 later as the minerality comes out.”

Didier Séguier, who has a history of harvesting early, began picking on the Thursday after the hail and heavy rainfall in 2015—the same day he had originally planned to start but not with the same vineyards. Following a hot, dry year with what Séguier described as “no bad weather events,” William Fèvre lost 30% to 50% of its potential production to the hail in Montmain, Forêts, Butteaux, Monteé de Tonnerre, Blanchots and Les Clos, carrying out a strict triage to eliminate damaged grapes. The 2015s remind Séguier of the 2009. “Actually, I first thought of the 2006s but the '15s are fresher, purer wines. They’re not classic like the 2014s but they’re not extreme like the ‘06s and 03s, and they will be very pleasant for consumers to drink young.”

Séguier, who maintains that early harvesting was particularly critical in 2015, believes that these wines have the structure and material to age. Total acidity levels are on the soft side (around 3.8 grams per liter) but pHs are in the healthy 3.15 to 3.25 range, he told me. He's convinced that the estate’s organic farming practices “reinforce the freshness of a hot vintage like 2015.” The fruit was picked with between 12% and 13% potential alcohol and only the lighter wines were chaptalized. The alcoholic fermentations went quickly and the malos finished between January and March, so the wines were racked and assembled in April and May.

Séguier rates 2014 as “un grand millésime de garde--a more concentrated version of 2008 and also like 2010.” The wines were bottled between December and February, with a bit less total sulfur than previously thanks to Fèvre’s use of DIAM corks.