A complete, fine Chablis Vaulorent

Tonight’s Chablis Vaulorent 2020 from Louis Michel is the first time I have had my favourite Chablis Premier Cru from my favourite Chablis producer – truly a special occasion!

Now, given my previous comments on Chablis Premier Cru Vaulorent, notably from Fevre, you are no doubt expecting lots of Premier/Grand Cru dichotomy-statements. There will be some of them. What this wine has made me think about is, in a broader sense, what makes really pleasing, really fine white wine.

Let us crack on with tasting and waxing philosophical!

Chablis Premier Cru Vaulorent 2020, Louis Michel

As usual for quality Chardonnay, I have taken this Chablis Vaulorent out of the fridge and decanted it 35 minutes before The Editor and I sit down and drink it with our dinner. Fine wine should be shared with our favourite people, ideally over a meal.

Yes, this is clearly good Chablis. It is nutty, steely, there is a touch of oyster shell and pleasing lemon fruit. It is reasonably nervy and edgy.

I must admit I was expecting more mineral-density and dry extract-scale, given the vineyard’s proximity to the Grand Cru along its flank. Instead, I am getting some more waxy, lanolin-type characteristics.

It reminds me, in some ways of the best South African Chenin Blancs; white wines that have been fermented in concrete eggs; or the very, very, very best whites that have seen time in amphorae (think Jean-Marc ‘le nez’ Roulot).

A taste. Yes, there is great acidity, sweet lemon fruit, a pure, oystershell minerality and some slightly astringent scale. What really excites me about this Chablis Vaulorent is the umami character!

What do I mean by umami? It means, ‘a powerful savoury flavour imparted by glutamate or certain other amino acids’. This may not help you too much!

In the West, the taste is typified by monosodium glutamate, the sticky, savoury-taste of Chinese takeaways. It is, in fact, one of the five essential flavours we can taste with our tongues along with sweetness, sourness, saltiness and bitterness.

Yes, this Chablis Vaulorent is exceptionally savoury. I am always banging on about how I like a savoury flavour in white wines. I find it in the best South African Chenin Blancs, the Alsace wines of Julien Schaal, Jean Boxler and Olivier Humbrecht, the brilliant New Zealand Chardonnay’s of Kumeu River and the very best white Burgundies, including Grand Cru Chablis from people like Fevre and, indeed, Louis Michel.

So, yes, this Chablis Vaulorent does show Premier Cru and Grand Cru characteristics, the latter in that it has the savoury character of exceptionally fine wine.

More ordinary white wines have the sweetness of fruit – or more directly, sugar – and the sourness of acidity. For some wine writers, this is enough. The loon Alois Kracher got huge numbers attached to his wines in the 1990s because they were emetically sweet but still had good acidity. And they were as simple as diabetic piss and about as fun to drink.

A more sophisticated white wine has the saltiness and bitterness of the minerality of a good terroir and quality fruit. Most decent wines we are interested in can manage these and we certainly want them in addition to sweetness and sourness. Minerality, along with dry-extract astringency can account for the difference in perceived ‘size’ of two wines in one’s mouth.

A seriously fine white wine, like a great white Burgundy, a grown-up Riesling, or the finest South African Chenin, has the fifth flavour: the savoury, umami character.

As I promised at the beginning of this piece, there are comments about the Premier/Grand Cru dichotomy of Chablis Vaulorent. It is, however, more sophisticated than the mere scale and power of the wine.

What makes this a great Chablis Vaulorent is that it has a balance between all the flavour characteristics one wants in anything one sticks in one’s mouth – sweet, salt, sour, bitter and savoury. Not everything is quite good enough to manage this. The wines I mentioned above do. This certainly does.

Consequently, it slips down a treat!