Fevre defines a new reference for Chablis

At Elitistreview Towers we are rather taken with this offering from Domaine William Fevre – we popped [link2post id=”4017″]a bottle of the 2005[/link2post] earlier this month and it really delivered in the ‘classy wine’-department. For those who don’t know this is made from Premier Cru fruit that is grown smack-bang beside the Grand Crus and that proximity shows in the character of the wine.

Whilst the other vintages I’ve tried have been undoubtedly spell-binding, the 2007 goes beyond that. The weather conditions seem to have suited the style of the climat to such an extent that it prescribes a new quality baseline that screams beyond the now-comparatively pallid wines of the past and sets towering standards that future vintages will struggle to achieve.

This wine also sets aspirational targets more broadly for other Chablis. Its multi-faceted, stylish personality exceeds the [link2post id=”3979″]Raveneau we popped recently[/link2post] in terms of sophisticated, scintillating class and it has the advantage of not smelling like it will give you dysentery; vineyard character does not have to be expressed in terms of filth. Truly this is the best bottle of Premier Cru Chablis I have ever tried and if I ever have anything better it will be such an acute aesthetic shock that my faculties will be shaken enough to risk getting sectioned again.

Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume ‘Vignoble de Vaulorent’; 2007, Domaine William Fevre

This nose toys with the conventional ideas of scale one looks for in wine: it is simultaneously dense and earthy like the most profound of Cote de Beaune Grand Crus whilst also being an intricate little expression of lucent beauty and finely-honed elegance. There is all that flinty, nutty, lemony stuff one looks for in Chablis but I’m finding such simple descriptors to be slightly condescending if I try to apply them to elaborate experience which is the totality of the nose. I’m taken with its chic, polished character which is extremely vineyard-driven without deteriorating into showing any hint of dirtiness. The palate shows more in the way of elaborate, intricate flavours. Again there is a nervy tension between Grand Cru power and Premier Cru elegance. I love its vivacious fruit/acid balance which is only compounded in complexity by the strong minerality that suffuses the palate. It pulses with life and throbs with class, and transfers that energy to me and my fellow drinkers in a deeply ego-stimulating manner. Ageing this wine would certainly be rewarding, but I am far from doleful that I popped my single bottle tonight.