CHABLIS UNCORKED

Chablis corks from our tasting

Last Saturday we had a very interesting Tongham Taster’s event where we tasted eight wines from the Chablis area of France, including some rather pricey Premier and Grand Cru wines. Twelve of us gathered around our dining table to taste the wines that I had chosen and some matching food that Jane had prepared and to try and uncork the mystery of why Chablis is so popular.  It was a great evening with both some new faces and old.

Grand Cru Chablis grapes July 2011

It is always funny to hear people say that they hate Chardonnay but love Chablis but this is the opinion of more than a few. The fact is that Chablis producers deliberately set out to produce something different to the Chardonnay wines of the rest of the Burgundy region let alone the rest of the World. It is partly terroir as Chablis is north of most of the rest of Burgundy and is closer in distance and geology to Sancerre and Champagne than to the Cote D’Or or Macon for instance. The kimmeridgian soils of the better parts of Sancerre and Chablis produce remarkably similar wines considering the two contrasting grape varieties of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Champagne and Chablis, along nowadays with Southern England, represent the northern limits of Chardonnay growing and thus the harvest tends to be less ripe than those grapes grown further south and thus tend to have a greater acidity. This century, following global warming, the overall quality of Chablis has improved but the character has changed slightly and the growers have to be more careful to produce something akin to traditional Chablis rather than traditional white Burgundy. The good news nowadays is that Petit Chablis has really stepped up due to climate change and is now rather a good quality wine but at a good price (as I recommended on the night, do try the Petit Chablis at Asda which is less than £8 a bottle). Many wine drinkers like Chablis because it is unoaked but in fact many of the better Premier Cru and Grand Cru Chablis are at least partially oaked, maybe 25% for the 1er Cru and 50% for the Grand Cru, although this does depend upon the producer. This can give the wines some other interesting characteristics that a true wine connoisseur can appreciate.

Our tasting team enjoying the evening

So how did our tasting team appreciate the wines that I served them? Unusually, we did not taste the wines blind, because I wanted everyone to understand the differences between Petit Chablis, Chablis, Premier Cru Chablis and Grand Cru Chablis as well as tasting very old Chablis and that from top producers. Score are out of 20 and are in the order John E, Ian, Clive, Chris, Kathryn, Corinne and Paul. The wines are in the order that I served them and the prices are what I paid unless indicated. The wines were served at 10 degrees centigrade.

Church and vineyards near JM Brocard

You will note that I served a couple of other wines from the general region around Chablis. Although Chablis produces only Chardonnay grapes there are other local vineyards producing other grapes. To the South West of Chablis lies Irancy which produces a light Pinot Noir, and St Bris which produces a Sauvignon Blanc. To the North East of Chablis is Epineuil which produces Pinot Noir rosé and red. There is also Cote d’Auxerre (white and reds) to the west of Chablis and Bourgogne reds and even Cremant de Bourgogne not far away. As I mentioned earlier, parts of Sancerre and the Champagne district are also not far away so Chablis represents a good centre for a wine vacation.

1. La Chablisienne Bourgogne-Epineuil 2010, French rosé. €7.30. Served with homemade chicken curry flavoured popcorn.
This was a lovely aperitif wine to start the evening, a lovely light strawberry flavoured Pinot Noir rosé. It went well with my chicken curry flavoured popcorn. If you want the recipe it is also posted on this blog site. La Chablisienne is a really good co-operative and one of the very best co-ops in France – they also do excellent Chablis from Petit up to Grand Cru as well as trhe Epineuil and Irancy we tried. Scores were 13, 9.5, 14, 11, 15, 11 and 7.

2. Jean-Marc Brocard Petit Chablis Domaine Sainte Claire 2010, French white, €7.20. Served with spicy carrot pakoras.
This wine showed how Petit Chablis has improved over the years and it was subtle, light, minerally and generally good. It matched the spicy food well. Scores were 14, 14.5, 16, 15.5, 15, 14 and 16.

3. Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Domaine Sainte Claire 2009, French white, €8.28. Served with gluten free Gougeres (Burgundy cheese puffs to the uninitiated)
This wine was also delicious and more concentrated than the Petit Chablis, if a little unrefined. The gougeres were a classic combination for Chablis and went well. For once, Jane produced something gluten free that I enjoyed (she used a normal recipe but with Doves Farm gluten free flour). Scores were 14.5, 10, 16+, 14.5, 15.5, 11 and 13.

4. Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis 1er Cru Mont de Millieu Vielles Vignes 2008, French white, €18.00.Served with homemade white beetroot soup topped with a goats cheese foam.
Billaud-Simon is one of my favourite Chablis producers and this is probably their best 1er Cru wine in my opinion. This showed another step up in quality from the previous wines and two of our tasting team rated it their favourite wine of the evening as it had good acidity and little apparent oak. A really nice wine and great value, if not as wonderful as some of those we were about to taste! It paired well with the smooth white beetroot soup that I made and Jane’s warm goat’s cheese espuma that topped it. Scores were 17.5, 15, 16, 17, 17.5, 16 and 15.

5. Domaine Francois Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnere 2001, French white, expect to pay over £70 a bottle for this ! Served with cold salmon, new potatos and mayonnaise.
This wine was a gift and thus our tasters got to taste this expensive wine for free. Raveneau is perhaps the top producer in Chablis and his wines are not easy to source and expensive when you do. I had tasted this wine last year and it was very good but it showed up less well in our evening. However, one of our team found it their favourite wine of the evening (expensive tastes that one!). It had much more oak than those we had tasted so far and was very rich and different to a standard everyday Chablis. The salmon was another classic pairing that worked well. Scores were 18-, 13.5, 15, 16, 18, 17 and 14.

6. Domaine Laroche Chablis Grand Cru Les Blanchots Reserve de l’Obedience 2006, French white, €68.56. Served with potted pheasant and homemade bread.
For most of us this had a better balance between oak and fruit than the preceding wine. Another expensive wine, just getting towards its peak, it was a real treat. It matched our pheasant rillette that Jane had made in industrial quantities (everyone went home with a jar!). Great to taste it with a Grand Cru from a top producer. Scores were 18+, 17, 16, 18.5, 18, 16 and 15.

7. Daniel-Etienne Defaix 1er Cru Vaillon 1983, French white, €75.00. Served with mature Gouda cheese.
Daniel-Etienne Defaix is yet another of my favourite Chablis producers (Chablis like Sancerre is one of my passions!). They are unusual in that they don’t sell their wine until it is at its peak and they think a premier Cru should be at least 10 years old. So what about one that is 29 years old? Wow! Has a lovely acidity but an amazing aftertaste – Ian said it was like drinking the taste of the cave it had been maturing in! Subtle tones of calvados and orange peel were also detected. Really, really interesting wine and a great wine for sharing. Half our tasters found this their favourite wine of the evening. It went well with the old Gouda and also the popcorn. Scores were 18++, 17.5, 18, 19, 18, 17 and 18. Fiona went higher and scored this 19.

8. La Chablisienne Irancy 2009, French red, €8.70. Served with Tomme de Savoie and Chaource cheese (as the Chaorce didn’t pair well with the Irancy we also opened another bottle of Brocard Chablis which was a perfect match).
It was probably a mistake to serve a relatively cheap red after all those magnificent whites but it did match with the Tomme de Savoie. Scores were 11, 12, 12, 10.5, 15, 12 and 8.

Jane serving Kathryn's apple tarts

9. We finished the evening with some homemade apple tart and some non-Chablisienne bubbly – the local Greyfriars’ 2005 doing a good job to end out great evening. Many thanks to Kathryn who cooked the tart and brought it along. The idea of the apple tart was to show some of the flavours that Chablis can produce – this far north it is more apple than tropical fruit.

All the cheese we tasted was from the excellent cheese shop at Secrett’s in Milford. The Petit Chaource was particularly good!

Well done to Jane for cooking and serving most of the delightful food we had for this gourmet evening.

Our next Tongham Taster’s evening is very soon on Friday October 5th. For this evening Steve, fresh from his recent trip to France, will be presenting us six French wines from different regions. I am certainly looking forward to this and if you would like to join us give me (John) a ring on 07717 876743 or email me at tonghamtaster@gmail.com. The cost of the evening will be £10 per person and will include the usual selection of nibbles. Venue will be in The Street, Tongham, Surrey, UK.

Don’t forget that we have our Andean Adventure Chilean and Argentinean wine tasting dinner in Tongham Village Hall on Saturday 13th October. We have sold all sixty tickets but may be able still to squeeze in a few more if you ask nicely and very soon.

Vineyards in Chinon - our November tasting subject.

In November we are having another evening that will appeal to the real wine enthusiasts out there and will further educate our group about wine tasting. We will be having our first vertical tasting with six red Cabernet Franc wines from Chinon in France, all from top and respected producers, and covering the period 2008 back to 1990! An evening not to be missed on Friday 9th November in Grange Road, Tongham. Again call or email me if interested. If we get enough interest, again the cost should be £10, despite some more expensive wines than normal.

In December, on Friday 14th, we have our Christmas Party, which will be in Farnborough, Hampshire, and a short taxi ride from Tongham. Again let me know if you are interested in joining our fun group for our Christmas tasting experience.

Thanks to our twelve Chablis tasters, I really loved how much you appreciated the fine wines I served you. What an experience to share a 1983 1er Cru Chablis and have everyone really enjoy it! We must have more fine wine evenings!

9 courses but small portions!

Some of our food pairings were suggested by Fiona Beckett’s blog which is well worth a read and gave me some confidence in serving the 29 year old Chablis.

As usual many of the photos are by our official TT photographer Clive Greenfield – thanks for the great pics as usual.

Our ball pourers worked well

For this tasting we used a gadget on top of the wine bottle to ensure that everyone got an exact 50ml serving. This works well when trying to get between twelve and fifteen servings from one bottle and also aerates the wine nicely. It is made mainly for cocktails but works well for wine as well. They were 50ml chrome ball pourers and cost £4.99 each from Barmans.co.uk.

Cheerio until next time!