Reviews & Awards

The 2015 Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte de Bouguerots was the standout wine when I tasted the range of William Fèvre from barrel. Now in bottle, the nose has closed down, but there remains a brooding intensity here and superb minerality. The palate is very well balanced with a touch of orange zest and quince on the entry. There is a keen line of acidity here and quite a powerful finish that lingers long in the mouth.

Lemon butter and almond pastry from time spent in four- to six-year-old barrels. Sweetly fragrant white flowers and a fine minerally thread. This makes a very composed, fresh and sleek impression on the palate. Long and slightly fleshy white-peach finish.

The 2014 Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots has an extremely focused, mineral-dense bouquet that is "vrai Chablis." There is a strong marine influence here. The palate is fresh and vibrant with lemon zest, lime, minerals and a crescendo of power toward the finish. Around 70% is vinified in oak and matured for six months before transferring into stainless steel, and this fills out, adds volume to the finish. There is a pleasant bitter note right on the finish. This should be superb.

Bougros produces rich wines, and this wine comes from the extra-ripe vineyard at the base of the slope. It is generous, giving a weighty character with the flavors plumbing the depths of richness. On top, a beautiful, almost sweet acidity leaves a fresh feeling in the mouth.

This is perennially one of my favorite wines and one that I buy virtually every vintage. The 2013 version displays a deft touch of oak that again is sufficiently subtle as to allow the ripe and very fresh white and yellow orchard fruit, sea breeze and iodine scents to shine. There is excellent punch as well as fine detail to the almost aggressively mineral-driven flavors that possess good power but also a lovely sense of refinement on the wonderfully long and impeccably well-balanced finish. Exquisite.

Broad, powerful flavors of lemon, lanolin and quinine ride the bracing structure to a long, stony conclusion. Shows balance and length, building from start to finish.

Very pale yellow with a faint green tinge. Lime zest, white flowers and white pepper on the bright, high-pitched nose. Sappy, ripe and substantial, showing sexy sweetness of fruit in a technically very dry wine. Superb acidity and energy here, but not as tightly wound as the Preuses. The full south exposure of the vines gives this wine its amplitude and generosity. As with the regular Bougros, this large-scaled, long wine is not at all hard or austere.

Pale, green-tinged yellow. Subtle, discreet nose offers hints of citrus fruits, spices, white pepper and minerals. Then almost shockingly massive and powerful in the mouth, boasting bulletproof citrus and white peach flavors energized by harmonious acidity (but barely four grams per liter, according to Didier Séguier). More robust and masculine than the Preuses and drier and more bracing on the long finish, this sappy wine needs time to harmonize. But as with all of these 2015s, there's nothing hard about this grand cru.

This is also completely classic and even more aromatically complex with a plethora of sea shore nuances to the cool green fruit scents. On the palate this is dense, powerful and quite serious with brooding flavors that brim with dry extract that buffers the firm acid spine on the intensely mineral-driven and explosively long finish. This is the biggest wine in the range yet impeccably well-balanced and if not exactly refined, then certainly not rustic either. If this can add even more depth than I am projecting my predicted score will seem to be overly conservative.

Pungent yet elegant white peach nose displaying discrete power. Fine attack, precise and lifted, with ample fruit and a light touch. Silky and refined with a clear minerality on the finish.