A Taste of Chablis

When I started tasting wine, many years ago, I soon became sure of one thing. I couldn’t stand Chablis. What I had tasted was on the lower end of the price scale, and it came from California, but it was still Chablis, right? It was rather sweet and lacked both fruit and any distinction. Today, Chablis is one of my favorite types of wine. I will go even further, and say that with the prices for many classified French wines spiraling out of sight, Chablis is the best bargain on the French wine scene today, for wines of the finest quality. Clearly, as French winemakers from Chablis (a small town in Burgundy) have been at pains to let us know, what was sold as “California Chablis” had nothing to do with the real thing. So if, like myself, you have painful memories of cheap wine, forget it, and try the real thing. Chablis, a little town of 2600 inhabitants in the Yonne Department, is worth a trip if you are visiting France and have rented a car. The town is just 113 miles southeast of Paris. Take the Auxerre Sud exit from National Autoroute A6 for another 12 kilometers, and there you are. It is a small town, bordered by the Serein River on the North. When my wife and I visited Chablis, we drove through the little town, stopping at a sidewalk cafe that faced the Serein. We sat and had French croques monsieurs (a grilled ham and cheese) and a carafe of chilled Chablis. It was just perfect. The wine was delicious, and from the café we could look across the little bridge, and see the slopes where the seven Chablis Great Growths (Grands Crus) are grown. Those seven are Blanchot, Les Clos (the most famous, and many people think the best), Valmur, Grenouille, Preuse, Vaudesir and Bougros. All together, they are grown on just 100 hectares (for acres, multiply by 2.5). The wine books will give you characteristics for each one, and you may well develop your own preferences. The bottom line, though, is that these are superb wines, and still affordable. It has been said that the 1996 Chablis vintage, which is still available in retail outlets, was an outstanding success. To get a bottle of 1996 William Fevre Chablis Les Clos for $32.50, which is the average price I’ve seen in the Washington area, is to get a great wine at a comparative bargain price. And that is for the best. But Chablis wines are not all grands crus. There is generic Chablis wine, but at prices that low, why bother? The first growths, which come from the communes around Chablis, average about half the price of a grand cru. They comprise some 715 hectares and vary in quality from superior to acceptable. Amongst the best known are Les Vaillons, Fourchaume, Mont de Milieu, and Montee de Tonnerre. Since they tend to be somewhat lighter than the grands crus, they go very well with informal meals. One of our favorite memories of a few summers back was devouring a bushel of Chesapeake Bay crabs, with a chilled bottle of 1990 Chablis Les Vaillons. We were on the patio. It was a hot evening, and we watched Cal Ripken break Lou Gehrig’s consecutive game record in real style, cracking steamed crabs and drinking our cool Chablis. As with any Burgundy, find a producer that you trust, and you’ll find that the wines are usually of uniformly high quality. I can recommend William Fevre (who welcomed us to his estate during our trip to Chablis), J. Moreau et Fils, Domaine Vocoret et Fils, Maison Simonnet-Febvret et Fils, Domaine Jean Dauvissat, and the Cave La Chablisienne. They have different styles, and quite individual attitudes about the aging of their wines. Some insist on aging their wines in oak, reasoning that Chablis, like any white burgundy wine, is a product of the chardonnay grape, and best develops with exposure to strong oak tannins. Other producers insist with equal vehemence that Chablis is a lighter wine, and to keep that individual character, oak must not be used. You decide. This is a disagreement about how to produce the finest wine, after all, so the consumer is the ultimate winner. Chablis can be served before dinner, with appetizers, or it can be invited to the table. It goes superbly well with fish, ham, or poultry. Gourmet cooks will want to use a cup or so with heavy cream and shallots to make Trout Chablisien, or with mushrooms and heavy cream for a memorable ham dish, for example. Chicken sauteed in cream and wine, or scampi, are other possibilities. Just make sure that you have saved enough Chablis to serve with the meal itself! So if, like me, you have painful memories of “Chablis,” treat yourself to the real thing. A chilled bottle or two from a good producer will be a revelation, and, for the time being at least, a pleasantly affordable one. If you enjoyed this article, you’ll love our ongoing discussion of French Food and Wine! Bill Shepard learned to love the wines of Bordeaux when he served as Consul General there. You can read more about his life as a consular officer in Can the U.S. Embassy Help in a Crisis? Copyright (c) 1999 Paris New Media, L.L.C.