Chablis Premier Cru
Chablis Premiers Crus are stylish, minerally wines that are highly underrated, with the better examples outclassing many a good village white Burgundy. The vineyards cover 750 hectares, scattered across 15 communes on isolated slopes with good exposure. There are 17 principal Premiers Crus but in total 79 vineyards are eligible. The finest bottles typically reach their apogee at eight to 10 years.
Learn more about Chablis Premier Cru
Chablis Premiers Crus are stylish, minerally wines which, typically, are less intense than the Grand Crus but finer and longer-lasting than basic Chablis. They are highly underrated with the better examples outclassing many a good village white Burgundy.
The vineyards cover 750 hectares, scattered across 15 communes on isolated slopes with good exposure. There are 17 principal Premiers Crus but in total 79 vineyards are eligible, with most of the lesser-known ones using a more familiar umbrella name on their label. The best flank the Grands Crus on the north bank of the River Serein, like Montée de Tonnerre (probably the best of all), Fourchaume and Mont de Milieu.
Those just south of Chablis, like Vaillons, Montmains (especially Les Forêts) and Côte de Léchet are also good. With the vineyard area having doubled since the 1970s, quality varies enormously so, as ever, the producer is key.
Styles also vary, with some maturing and fermenting in stainless steel for a purer, more minerally style, while others age and sometimes even ferment their wines in oak for extra complexity. The best examples reach their apogee at eight to 10 years, but are normally enjoyed long before then.
Recommended producers: Jean-Claude Bessin, Billaud-Simon, Séguinot-Bordet, J.-P. & Benoit Droin, Duplessis, Defaix
Prices:
H/Bottle
£12.50
H/Bottle 24 x 37.5cl 13cs
Bottle
£16.25
Bottle
£16.50
Bottle
£21.60
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle
£25.00
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Volumes for 2015 are down after the pre-harvest hail but the quality here is exemplary. The father and daughter team of Laurent and Charlène Pinson, aided by other members of the family, continue to make excellent and very fairly priced wines from a range of vineyards. Part of our selection is shown below. The wines are mostly vinified in stainless steel then given a proportion of barrel ageing.
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 38cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Volumes for 2015 are down after the pre-harvest hail but the quality here is exemplary. The father and daughter team of Laurent and Charlène Pinson, aided by other members of the family, continue to make excellent and very fairly priced wines from a range of vineyards. Part of our selection is shown below. The wines are mostly vinified in stainless steel then given a proportion of barrel ageing.
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 25cs
Drink 2019-2030. 92/100.
Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate
Bottle
£27.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 8cs
Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate. 28th August 2015.
Bottle
£29.90
Bottle 6 x 75cl 4cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Visiting the domaine during the 2015 harvest, we found Margaux Laroche beaming like a cat with two tails. The storm which had dropped hail over other vineyards had merely provided much needed water for their Fourchaume vines. The grapes badly needed the extra juice which the rains provided, and the extra hang time allowed for them to assimilate the water usefully and then regain their equilibrium behind. The resulting wines are terrific.
Bottle
£32.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 149cs
Jeroboam
£215.00
Jeroboam 1 x 300cl 4cs
Bottle
£33.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 21cs
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer
Bottle
£33.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 4cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Quantity is a bit of a problem this year as the Michels suffered hail in 22 of their 25 hectares. Fortunately most of the Grands Crus were spared, but they have very little Chablis or Premier Cru. Guillaume Michel brought in most of the crop in three and a half days, so there was no deterioration of the grapes from the areas which suffered. The grapes were in fact ripe to perfection and, as with last year, this is an impressive range of wines.
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
In common with most of his colleagues, Didier Séguier was ready to harvest in early September; starting on Thursday 3rd with the vineyards which had been hit by the hail storm earlier in the week. The damage was to volume rather than quality and certainly just from tasting it was not possible to see where the hail had fallen. These are powerful wines which have nonetheless retained the qualities of classic Chablis.
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 42cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Quantity is a bit of a problem this year as the Michels suffered hail in 22 of their 25 hectares. Fortunately most of the Grands Crus were spared, but they have very little Chablis or Premier Cru. Guillaume Michel brought in most of the crop in three and a half days, so there was no deterioration of the grapes from the areas which suffered. The grapes were in fact ripe to perfection and, as with last year, this is an impressive range of wines.
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 38cs
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 12cs
Bottle
£36.95
Bottle
£37.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl 8cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Visiting the domaine during the 2015 harvest, we found Margaux Laroche beaming like a cat with two tails. The storm which had dropped hail over other vineyards had merely provided much needed water for their Fourchaume vines. The grapes badly needed the extra juice which the rains provided, and the extra hang time allowed for them to assimilate the water usefully and then regain their equilibrium behind. The resulting wines are terrific.
Bottle
£39.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 23cs
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer
The Droins have been producing wines in Chablis for nearly 400 years (their history as vignerons goes back at least to 1620). Benoît represents the 14th generation, having taken over from his father Jean-Paul. The domaine owns 13 hectares of vineyards and produces 14 different wines, including seven Premiers Crus and five Grands Crus. Benoît runs a sophisticated operation from a large modern winery almost in the shadow of the Grands Crus. He has revised his pruning system and significantly reduced yields; while in the cellar the principal change has been away from new oak. Visiting Benoît Droin in spring 2017 was a sobering affair; row upon row of stainless steel tanks stood empty, their doors hanging open as a stark reminder of the damage caused by the frost and twin hailstorms of the nightmarish 2016 vintage. Despite making just half his normal crop, Benoît remained philosophical and announced himself delighted with the vintage, explaining that he feels there is greater concentration and better balance than the sunnier 2015s. Unfortunately, there is no Fourchaume this year.
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 39cs
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer
The Droins have been producing wines in Chablis for nearly 400 years (their history as vignerons goes back at least to 1620). Benoît represents the 14th generation, having taken over from his father Jean-Paul. The domaine owns 13 hectares of vineyards and produces 14 different wines, including seven Premiers Crus and five Grands Crus. Benoît runs a sophisticated operation from a large modern winery almost in the shadow of the Grands Crus. He has revised his pruning system and significantly reduced yields; while in the cellar the principal change has been away from new oak. Visiting Benoît Droin in spring 2017 was a sobering affair; row upon row of stainless steel tanks stood empty, their doors hanging open as a stark reminder of the damage caused by the frost and twin hailstorms of the nightmarish 2016 vintage. Despite making just half his normal crop, Benoît remained philosophical and announced himself delighted with the vintage, explaining that he feels there is greater concentration and better balance than the sunnier 2015s. Unfortunately, there is no Fourchaume this year.
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 44cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jeroboam
£215.00
Jeroboam 1 x 300cl 6cs
The vineyards near to Chablis itself were affected by the heat at Whitsun, which damaged the flowering, so the quantity of wine is no better than last year. Outlying communes, however, were less impacted. Benoît began the harvest early, on 11th September. He compares 2014 to 1996, 2007 (only richer) and 2010 (only more mineral). A recent development here is for the wines to be fermented using their own indigenous yeasts.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
The third vintage at Domaine d’Henri is the best to date, and so they make their debut in our en primeur brochure. The grapes were hand picked between the 17th and 25th September, a long enough window to allow each plot to reach the desired degree of ripeness, and the wines have seen about 25 percent barrel-ageing. They will not be bottled until the spring.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer
The legendary Louis Pinson himself retired in 1983, having made some fabulous oldstyle Chablis. His great-grand-daughter, Charlène, along with her father Laurent and her uncle Christophe are now in charge. There is a Rue Pinson in Chablis, dating back to an earlier generation when three Pinson brothers lived in identical houses on the street. Everything is hand-harvested, with sorting of the grapes both in the vineyard and at the winery. The wines are wild-fermented, mostly in stainless steel tanks, before barrel ageing, with the proportion of oak depending on the cuvée. Despite describing 2016 as a testing year, Laurent Pinson and his daughter Charlène are upbeat, declaring themselves very happy with the quality of the grapes and resultant wines. Volumes are down in many cases, and the limited-production Cuvée Mademoiselle has not been made this year.
Jasper Morris MW - Burgundy Wine Director
Benoît Droin is the 14th generation of the family producing wine in Chablis, looking after a 25-hectare domaine with an impressive range of Premier and Grand Cru vineyards. Overall Benoît’s crop was down 15%, largely in straight Chablis after frost, and in the early ripening plots which suffered from drought. The wines are very backward this year as the prolonged cold spring inhibited the malolactic fermentation. However, it is very clear that these are wines of great concentration and real potential.
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
Picking began on Wednesday 2nd October for Les Butteaux and finished on the 8th. The crop was down overall by 35%, especially in village and Grand Cru. The wines underwent a long, slow fermentation without any lees stirring. Though we have long been admirers of this domaine, this is the first appearance for Louis Michel in our Grand Burgundy Offer.off without problem during vinification and in the cellar.
Will Heslop, Wine Buyer