Bill Nanson : Chablis 2022
Olivier Bailly on the frost of 2022: “We have a nice volume despite the frost that started the season. My first vintage of converting to organic farming certification. I have a very good feeling for this vintage, it seems complete and also gave us more than 50 hl/ha – apart from the worry about frost, psychologically it was an easy season in the vines too. Our Petit Chablis and Chablis were bottled before the harvest and we finished our bottlings with the grand crus in December.”
2022 Petit Chablis sur Les Clos Two parcels from the flat land on the top of the hill above the grand crus of Les Clos and Valmur — totalling 1.33 hectares and assembled. Ooh! — Fresh but also there’s a super-inviting core of fruit aroma. Incisive — silky with a little generosity. Then the spine of the wine becomes visible with a little salinity and then a fine finishing intensity — compact and delicious today — long… Top!
2022 Chablis An assembly of many parcels (left and right bank vines) including some purchased must to augment the domaine’s right-bank vines — but a little over 4 hectares worth. Mainly tank elevage with just a few barrels. 12 months elevage — Tête d’Or has longer elevage with more barrel elevage. Fuller with a more complex fresh citrus nose — super-inviting again. Large in scale with a small softening of the edges — less incisive — but broad and complex — delicious wine. The generosity of the PC is evident here too. More stony finishing and more complex and broad finishing too. I’d keep it 2 years to add a bit more focus but this is already excellent and should improve.
2022 Chablis Tête d’Or Parcel selections — ‘a skeleton of parcels that are always used and always better and the rest are selected from some other areas depending on the vintage to make the best cuvée’ — a little wood including some new large-format barrels — 500 and 600-litres. Bottled at the same time as the grand crus — in December. A more panoramic width of aroma — less volume. Here is a more incisive, fluid, wonderfully proportioned wine. Clearly great as the mineral-dominated flavour melts over the palate. Really broad finishing, with subtle complexity, almost gone but the holding, holding. Bravo — this is exquisite!!
2022 Chablis 1er Cru “Les Vaillons” Two parcels in Chatains, 2 in Sechets and one each in Minot and Roncières — 3 hectares. A little more of this with wood elevage than in some previous vintages. Wonderful depth to this aroma — really deep, modestly mineral — it’s lovely. Large over the palate — just a little extra intensity and visible structure vs the ultra-fluid Tête d’Or. An electric shock of finishing flavour — oof! That’s simply beautiful wine — and potentially a great Vaillons…!
2022 Chablis 1er Cru “Fourchaume” Normally 0.25 ha. The last part of Vaupulent. Some direction — linearity — but there’s a little aromatic width here too. Hmm — this has great energy and a modest generosity to the flavour. Saline flavours and ultra-broad finishing, almost a hint of finishing cream Love this texture too — Fading, fading flavour. A beauty!!
2022 Chablis 1er Cru “Vaulorent” From Fourchaume, bought grapes in Vaupulent — the only difference for the label/capsules is the missing ‘Domaine’… A silky width of aroma — perhaps rounded by the elevage but the elevage has left no aromatic traces. I like the scale and energy of this wine, faintly accented by a small tannin, then an impressive finishing intensity to the flavour. Slowly fading again. Another beautifully crafted wine.
2022 Chablis 1er Cru “Vaupulent” A contract — the proprietor does the work through the year but the team here harvest the vines. Mainly tank elevage. There’s a nice vibration of minerality in this nose, faintly smoky too. A wine that opens out over the palate — mineral-accented by the citrus — rather than the mainly citrus of the last. Super in the finish — this is simply excellent wine — calmly but deliciously finishing in an ever-narrowing finish.
2022 Chablis 1er Cru “Mont de Milieu” Four parcels, 0.35 ha at the top pulled out after the 2015 harvest as there was virus and too low yields. 2.74 ha in total. That’s got a nice depth but a wonderful top perfume — such an invitation! Cool, incisive — ultra-silky. Growing more intense from the middle to finish. There’s some subtle barrel influence in these last flavours but here is an ultra-sophisticated wine…
2022 Chablis 1er Cru “Montée de Tonnerre” 2.15 ha in three parcels. Some of the oldest vines of the domaine are here with 80-85 years of age. An important part to the domaine — the average age of vines here is at least 40 years of age. Almost all tank elevage for this wine. More overtly stony and fresh aromas — a beauty. In the mouth too — juicy, less mouth-filling volume than the nose suggested but bubbling with energy and fine purity of flavour. I even have the impression of some dry extract in this finish. Give it time — but from the perspective of style — this is much more my style of wine than the MdM…
2022 Chablis Grand Cru Les Blanchots The tiniest parcel of grand cru here, just 0.18 ha — also right at the top near their parcel of Les Clos. Two barrels but stainless-steel barrels. A sleeker — more vertical nose. Broad, more overtly mineral flavours. Wonderfully finishing — a wine with a modest structure and plenty of finishing intensity — but also a wine to wait for to add the extras of the previous wine — 2-5 years and as long as you like after that!!
2022 Chablis “Bougros” A small cuvée all stainless steel, made from contracted grapes. Obviously more concentrated and floral — that’s a great aromatic start. Large scale and panoramic shape in the mouth — modest zestiness here. Particularly in the finish — a twist of citrus acidity — ooh that’s so refreshing and moreish — there are wines here that you should wait for — this I will wait for the weekend! I love that!
2022 Chablis 1er Cru “Valmur” Same size cuvée and elevage as the Bougros. A wine whose aromas sit between the previous two — the sleek minerality of the last but with a little extra fruit and flowers in tow. In the mouth too, incisive, precise — then there’s the concentration — ooh this could be a great wine — the finishing power is so impressive. I would still wish to wait for this whilst impatiently drinking the Bougros! I think a great one!
2022 Chablis Grand Cru “Vaudésir” Three parcels here that come to 0.49 ha — two in the colder part — that brings freshness in warm years. Both fermentations in tank and for the last few months moved to old 600-litre barrels to ‘open the wine a bit more’ Here’s a more contemplative width of honey and wax-inflected aroma — slowly with florals too — it’s very complex. Open and mineral — there is fine mouth-filling volume and a more stony and contemplative finish. Much to see but also to wait for — I’d say 4-5 years to let the wine show itself…
2022 Chablis Grand Cru “Les Preuses” All tank elevage. The first wine where the oak is clear in the aromas — but a wine of cushion and fine aromatic citrus too. Supple, mobile — almost a little fluidity breaking up the concentration. Yes, a little wood influence from the middle to finishing flavours too. It’s not the wine with the brightest shine star today despite a great, slightly tannic textured finish. Give it 5 years to see the real wine.
2022 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos This is the first vintage incorporating the young, 2018 replanted, vines and a couple of barrel purchases too. Here there are aromas going in many directions — some of barrel, some of flowers, others of minerals or citrus — you might say complete — though I’ll be waiting for the barrel to fade! Modestly supple but with a width of cool fruit. Just a couple of mm of cushion to these flavours. Then a small grain of tannin before the wine fades, very slowly into the distance — no fireworks in the finish today, just a faint barrel note — but less overt barrel than in the Preuses. Another wine to wait for to decide whether it’s ‘only’ excellent or maybe better…
