Reviews & Awards

The 2015 Champs Royaux bottling is produced from purchased grapes, but shares the fine bounce and mineral undertow of the domaine bottlings from William Fèvre this year. The nose is pure and stylish, wafting from the glass in a mix of apple, a touch of tangerine, flinty minerality and spring flowers. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, pure and juicy, with fine focus and impressive backend grip and energy. A lovely example.

A bracing white, whose flavors of green apple, lemon and mineral are etched in the racy structure. Steely in the best sense, this ends with a lingering flourish of mineral. Drink now through 2016.

A racy, steely version, boasting lime blossom, green plum, chive and mineral flavors. Clean and persistent, with a lingering finish of green fruit and stone.

This is delicate, featuring lemon, herb and stone flavors lifted by the fine acidity. Touches of seashore and oyster shell add depth as this coasts to a clean finish.

Oyster-shell reduction and a note of lime on the classic Chablis nose. Dense, juicy and firm, boasting excellent definition to its flavors of oyster shell, lime and white flowers. Penetrating but not aggressive in spite of its firm acidity, finishing with excellent subtle length and grip. This terrific village wine is an exceptional value--but make sure you get the Domaine bottling.

A focused, lemon-, apple- and melon-flavored version, with accents of seashore and stone. The mouthwatering finish lingers well, echoing citrus and stone elements.

The “estate bottling” of Chablis villages from William Fèvre is even a step up from the very lovely Champs Royaux in 2015. The bouquet is deeper and more refined, wafting from the glass in a mélange of lime, green apple, a touch of oyster shell, chalky soil and fruit blossoms. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and very nicely balanced, with a good core, fine focus and impressive length and grip on the vibrant and nascently complex finish. This is really a serious example of AC Chablis this year!

A reductive, stainless-steel style of Chablis, this gains some weight from the concentration of fruit. It’s succulent and leesy while remaining clean, zesty and fresh, needing bottle time for the components to come together.

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.

Melon, apple, stone, seashore and earth aromas and flavors ride the vivid structure, finishing long. A grapefruit peel note lingers. Shows some flesh, too, delivering terrific balance and drive.