With Hart, James and Sungku at Le Clos.

First time trying this winemaker and plot 🙂

Along the way, I had unknowingly developed a preference for cold vintage Chablis – these tend to be more lean, focused, and more importantly tend towards being more mineral driven than fruits. This is versus some of the recent warmer vintages where the Chardonnay grapes (and perhaps winemaker process) start to express tropical fruits, which perhaps isn’t what I enjoy as much when I pick a Chablis. That said, 2021 was a super challengingly cold year with a lot of frost, and most growers lost a ton of their grapes.

In the glass: pale yellow gold, clear with no cloudiness.

On the nose: this wine needs A LOT of air. Initial nose was very closed, with just hints of mineral, and citrus.

On the palate: funny enough, slight tingle on tip of tongue, almost like a tiny bit of carbonation. Minerality. Slight reduction. Low alcohol. Dry with the tiniest touch of residual sugar.

On the exhale: intensely aromatic, with dried apricots, green pear, and I think vanilla?

We transitioned to reds shortly after, and left the bottle for about 2-3 hours. When revisited, the nose intensified very significantly, and became much richer, with an almost hay/straw like character. Much MUCH better with air.

I need to research if this has seen oak… hm

Update:

Vinification: 100% malolactic fermentation. Ageing 20/30% oak barrels – 80/70% stainless steel vats, depending on the vintage, for a minimum of 12 months.