Nathalie & Gilles Fevre Chablis Fourchaume Premier Cru 2021

The electric whites from Fèvre are almost always reserved for private clients and local restaurants, like the amazing Au Fil du Zinc in downtown Chablis, or even closer to home at NYC classics like Il Buco, Union Square Cafe, and The Grill on Park Ave. But when you’re sitting in someone’s home and you’ve traveled nearly a day to see them, it’s pretty hard to say no! So we did what we had to and leaned on the fact that we were right there in their laps, and it worked—we got the goods.

Nathalie and Julie are a dynamic team in the cellar. Their rapid-fire French set the tone for this exciting estate—thank god for our translator! The family combines the wealth of old vines in great positions with a technical prowess that few estates can boast. The jewel of the estate is Vaulorent, a lieux-dit of the most southern reach of Fourchaumes, sharing the same hillside and soil composition as the Grand Cru, Preuses. Their parcel was planted in the mid-1950s, yielding racy and fine Chablis, a bit salty and with fantastic length.

This one though is a Saturday Nighter – a special wine for sure. It comes from Fourchaume (one of the most noted Chablis 1ers crus) and vineyards situated on long slopes facing the sunrise, which allow for rapid soil warm up – a huge key to making deep, concentrated Chablis. Here the soils are predominantly brown clay and only slightly stony. Most of them are fairly deep and well-draining. It’s one of those most special white wine locations in all of Burgundy. This is a classic.