Quick thoughts on five Domaine William Fèvre wines that were poured at a Chablis & Oysters tasting at my favorite wine shop last night.
2017 William Fèvre Chablis Domaine
Exactly what it should be – fresh, bright acid, very clean. It was actually more aromatic than I expected, with a lot of lemon zest and white flowers. This was perfect with a couple of Maine oysters from Nonesuch Oysters.
2015 William Fèvre Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume
Notably richer (2015 was a warm year), to the point of being a bit heavy for my palate. That said, it was still a nice match with the oysters.
2015 William Fèvre Chablis Premier Cru Montée de Tonnerre
Also in a somewhat richer style, but this retained greater cut, feeling brighter on the palate than the Fourchaume. Long finish on this, which even on its own was distinctly salty. Brilliant with oysters.
2009 William Fèvre Chablis Premier Cru Vaulorent
Another rich vintage, and also the first for Fèvre under the DIAM closure. This shows some hints of maturity (more complex palate presence), but has plenty of legs left. The DIAM-10 closure is doing its job very well to this point.
2012 William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses
Glad to taste this again, as I bought a bunch on release, but drank it all out of an abundance of caution. I should not have feared. Still has some crisp, lemony youthful tones, but the real key here is the depth and length of the wine.
It was a real treat to try the wines, and have them with the classic pairing.
Thanks for posting these notes. I had been a buyer of Fevre in most vintages for years until the premox monster hit really hard. They became a no-go for me. May be time to give them another try as I always liked the qpr they offered pre-premox.
David -Agree with you on that 2017 Domaine. We really enjoyed it!
Kelly - The 2017 Domaine bottling was with DIAM cork, so safe to assume they all are now (maybe not the Champs Royaux?)
I have a long and somewhat tortured history with Fevre. before about 2001 or so, quality was disturbingly variable. 2002 on the wines were initially extremely good, but then I was very badly hurt by premox and quit buying. Through all of this the estate was quite up front about their battles with premox, and now with their current methods and the addition of the diam corks for all bottlings the wines now seem to be at least seriously forestalling premox, if not yet definitively eliminating it (too early to tell).
So now I’ve finally gone back to buying Fevre, and have given up my long term commitment to Dauvissat, which now is struggling with serious premox problems of their own.
One side comment, a bit of a detour from the OP–I’ve mostly decided that in the modern era, Grand Crus are often too rich/ripe for their own good, and I’m finding that PC’s are more in the sweet spot of where I want my Chablis. this is certainly not a new idea, and has been discussed quite a bit before. In light of this we did a PC chablis tasting of every PC we could locate to try to compare sites earlier this year. Since Fevre has more sites than most, I tried to stick mostly with Fevre wines. unfortunately 2016 was what was available, but it was still very instructive. not surprisingly, MdT is the clear winner. I found I also have a bit of a soft spot for Les Lys, and Secher (which had to be Dauvissat since Fevre doesn have one.)
May I ask a slightly off-center question here? In the pairing of wines (Champagne, Chablis, whatever) with raw oysters, what is the best way to eat the oysters?
I’m a plebe and generally like raw oysters with cocktail sauce, but that doesn’t really work with wines in any synergistic way. Eating the oyster unvarnished is a good match, but the oysters are less interesting that way. Mignonette is maybe a good compromise.
We were given a slice of lemon. Many used it. I chose not to. The Fèvre rep and oyster farmer did not use the lemon, so it seemed like the right choice.
I would highly suggest having the oysters solo as well, you might consider the wine pairing to be a pre/post consumption garnish for the oyster. Instead of creating a “complete” bite with the oyster+lemon/mignonette/etc. you are enjoying two things which are all the more delightful paired together. (I am a little biased though, as I tend to enjoy oysters sans garnish anyway. Agree with David that it is the best way to taste the differences in the oysters, terroir of the bivalve.)
Thank you for the notes David, sounds like a great tasting.