Reviews & Awards

The 2014 Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir has a complex bouquet, touches of hazelnut and grilled almond infusing the citrus fruit, a little richer than the Bougros at the moment. The palate is crisp and fresh with a fine line of acidity, although it does not quite possess the tension, the electricity of the finest examples that I have tasted from the vintage. Perhaps saving something for after bottling? Let's see.

The 2015 Chablis “Vaudésir” from Domaine William Fèvre is another lovely bottle, with a touch of exotica on the nose this year, but an utterly classic palate impression. The bouquet delivers a constellation of pear, lime, a touch of passion fruit, chalky minerality and apple blossoms. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with lovely purity on the attack, bright acids and fine backend mineral drive on the long and racy finish. Fine, fine juice.

From vines on the sunny side of the
vineyard, this wine is richly textured and structured, full of generous yellow and white fruits, spice and layers of wood aging. It has a honeyed character, typical of 2013, with a tight, taut, crisp acidity at the end.

Here the wood is so subtle as to be all but invisible as it easily allows the riper and denser mix of both white and yellow orchard fruit, petrol, spice and sea breeze scents to shine. The ripeness exhibited by the nose continues onto the juicy, even succulent yet beautifully focused flavors that deliver superb complexity on the impressively lingering finale. This should age effortlessly and I would expect the minerality to develop even more with age. A ‘wow’ wine.

Pale yellow. Cool aromas of lime, crushed herbs, pepper and mint. Densely packed but light on its feet, conveying moderate richness to its lime, mint and pepper flavors. Quite tight and taut; in need of time to evolve but I don't find the flavor development of the better 2014s here.

A very ripe and slightly exotic nose offers up notes of various dried yellow fruit scents together with hints of iodine and algae that are trimmed in enough wood to notice. There is impressively good concentration to the very rich, round and opulent flavors that are underpinned by both good minerality and firm acidity on the saline and dry but not austere finish. I very much like the balance here and in particular the fine persistence.

Trim and athletic, with a sleek profile reigning in the green apple, lemon and flint notes. Juicy and bright, offering a chalky feel on the long finish.

Here the wood is so subtle as to be all but invisible as it easily allows the riper and dense mix of both white and yellow orchard fruit, spice and sea breeze scents. The ripeness exhibited by the nose continues onto the juicy, even succulent broad-shouldered flavors that deliver stunningly good complexity on the impressively lingering finale. This should age effortlessly and I would expect the minerality to develop even more with age.

This is noticeably riper than the Vaulorent with hints of exotic yellow fruit
along with hints of spice and mineral reduction. Here too there is impressive size and weight to the solidly well-concentrated
big-bodied flavors that possess an opulent mid-palate before ending in a mineral-driven and intensely saline-infused finish that
just goes on and on. A terrific 2011.

Pale, bright yellow. Quite closed on the nose, hinting at pineapple, menthol and wet stone. Dense and smooth on the palate but extremely unforthcoming today, displaying dry, slightly reduced flavors of lemon drop and crushed stone. This sharply chiseled, mineral-driven wine boasts terrific structure for a graceful evolution in the bottle. Owing to its austerity, salinity and inner-mouth tension, it's more about Vaudésir than it is about the 2015 vintage.