Chablis Dinner with the Oakland Crew

Wonderful dinner at a most excellent restaurant. The food seemed particularly excellent this time - and very well matched with the wine. The rillettes and pate to start were exquisite, the gnocchi excellent and the scallops were just wonderful.

As always, more than anything the company makes these dinners. Several companions failed to show for various reasons - whilst we missed them, the more intimate nature and in particular (for me) the opportunity to learn more from folk with expertise in the area of Chablis made it a really wonderful event. Huge thanks to Jim in particular for bringing extra bottles in order to share his love and passion for Chablis.

• 2008 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 89 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  Served blind. Acidity there but not too strident - nice balanced wine - somewhat voluptuous for a Chablis but by no means flabby. Conversation at the table turned to age - suspicion was this was the younger wine of the flight. Very good stuff

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2008 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses 88 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  Served blind. Again - a wine to be admired more than enjoyed at this stage - tightly curled acidity - somewhat exhilarating but hard to keep up with. Clearly a very fine wine but more than a glass would be hard to drink - seems very young.
  
  Note same wine was served later that evening to different reaction - a combination I suspect of the food served and other wine in the flight as much as any differences between the bottles...

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2007 Laurent Tribut Chablis 1er Cru Beauroy 87 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  Served blind. Bit of funk / burnt rubber. No one else at the table reported this - interesting discussion on individual sensitivity to specific aromas...acidity very strident, a wine more to be admired than enjoyed perhaps? Again - table consensus seemed to be the more chablisienne of the flight - sneaking suspicion that I have somewhat MOR tastes in this area...
  
  Revisiting later with food it was much more pleasurable.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2006 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons 89 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  Served blind. Preferred wine of the flight. Yellow colour - a hint of burned rubber (or maybe I'm just learning to ignore it?) but more generous for sure. Later on opened more. Good stuff.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2004 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  WOTN for me lovely, open, surely balanced precision and generosity with no hint of flabbiness. Delicious stuff.

  Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2008 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses 89 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  Second bottle of this at the same dinner! Different from the last, much more in balance and pleasurable. My sense is that that was more to do with the wine and food arriving at that time than with the qualities of the wine itself (this was born out when I tried 2 glasses side by side - i thought I could tell the difference but certainly not as pronounced as the initial impressions had been).

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

Love these dinners where I'm charting new territory for me - I feel that I'm starting to *get* chablis - not just appreciating the excellent wines which are clearly just excellent by any vinous standards, but also beginning to appreciate what makes them chablisienne...