I still remember my military service times where I was employed in a mixed French and German unit, part of the Eurocorps. The main raison d’être of this unit was of course to intensify cooperation and friendship between France and Germany and as a part of this truly European spirit our small company once headed to Chablis in France. Officialy, to visit and inspect an equipment depot of ours which was located in the area; but in reality, we concentrated on indulging some French savoir-vivre, feasting on French Baguette and Pâté while trying some Chablis. Needless to say, this was more a carousal rather than a sophisticated wine tasting and on our way back, the slide door of our military VW bus had to be opened a few times.
But still, this was probably my first real encounter with Chablis and also with the notion of Terroir: a winemaker showed us the fossilized shells for which the soils are famous.
This was the (glorious) past and since then, I might have had Chablis on about 10 occasions only. So even though I might know in theory where to place Chablis taste-wise, practically-speaking it is still somewhat of a blank page.
So I couldn’t resist picking up a bottle when I recently passed by a Christmas-offer installation in the wine-section of a supermarket including well known Domaine William Fèvre (extended Profile on the Winedoctor’s blog). 18 Euro for a 1er Cru is a good opportunity to dip back into Chablis I thought plus 2007 was apparently not so bad of a vintage.
But then I might have opened it a bit too hasty and didn’t give the wine the proper airing it might have needed, so I guess my short tasting note has to be taken with a grain of salt:
It’s a young wine, so possibly a reason why it showed a bit closed. The nose had a very slight but elegant butter-note which represents a good use of wood in my opinion. Otherwise there wasn’t much aroma to find except a tendency towards green apples. On the palate a very compact strucure with good extract and strength but not feeling overly alcoholic despite 13%. Actually feeling quite clean and neat. Green apples and a good acidity are sensable. Minerality is a bit hidden. The need for further ageing becomes quite obvious here. Good length, but again, this will be a better wine in a year or 2. 86+
At least, I’ve taken one small step towards tasting more Burgs! :P
