Winemaker Notes
A tropical hint of ripeness on the nose of this wine fleetingly evokes passion fruit before lemony brightness takes over. The palate comes in with almost plump, rounded richness, suggesting Meyer lemon. Lemon smoothness persists on the clean, precise finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
I can see some of the Fourneaux vineyard out of the window from the Gautheron tasting room, including the vines which make up this cuvée. There is a fair amount of clay in the soil so the wines are accessible young. Pale lemon and lime. The fruit shows first up on the nose yet with underlying minerality. Discreet as ever, yet balanced with some salinity, perhaps more a spicy iodine. Good length. Understated yet fine, you need to go after it. Drink from 2027-2032. Tasted Jun 2024.
Barrel Sample: 90-93 -
Vinous
The 2023 Chablis Les Fourneaux 1er Cru is well defined on the nose, with light marine scents intermixing with orange blossom and a resin-like aroma. The palate is balanced with a fresh lime- and citrus-driven entry. The acidity is well judged and I appreciate the linearity and focus on the finish. The 2023 is worth seeking out. Tasted blind at the BIVB offices in Chablis.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The source of the most racy, light and tactile, yet uniquely complex Chardonnay, Chablis, while considered part of Burgundy, actually reaches far past the most northern stretch of the Côte d’Or proper. Its vineyards cover hillsides surrounding the small village of Chablis about 100 miles north of Dijon, making it actually closer to Champagne than to Burgundy. Champagne and Chablis have a unique soil type in common called Kimmeridgian, which isn’t found anywhere else in the world except southern England. A 180 million year-old geologic formation of decomposed clay and limestone, containing tiny fossilized oyster shells, spans from the Dorset village of Kimmeridge in southern England all the way down through Champagne, and to the soils of Chablis. This soil type produces wines full of structure, austerity, minerality, salinity and finesse.
Chablis Grands Crus vineyards are all located at ideal elevations and exposition on the acclaimed Kimmeridgian soil, an ancient clay-limestone soil that lends intensity and finesse to its wines. The vineyards outside of Grands Crus are Premiers Crus, and outlying from those is Petit Chablis. Chablis Grand Cru, as well as most Premier Cru Chablis, can age for many years.