Winemaker Notes
Chablis, with its steely character and fresh citrus flavor, pairs well with white fish and shellfish and its naturally high acidity can counterbalance cream-based sauces. Unoaked Chablis lends itself well to vegetables, starches, Comté, or fresh goat cheese.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Here’s a naked view of Les Clos, from seven acres of vines planted in 1958 and 1968; the fruit never sees oak and is vinified in stainless steel with ambient yeasts, then aged on the fine lees for 20 months. The wine sustains freshness in scents of peach and yellow apple, buttery green olives and notes of white lilies. It’s stony and elegant, with a mysterious depth and concentration that hints at hazelnuts and smoke. This will be compelling to follow as it evolves over the next five to ten years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Moreau's 2016 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos saw fully 20 months on the lees in stainless steel, and it has turned out well, unwinding in the glass with aromas of apples, oranges, confit citrus and fresh pastry, complemented by a delicate top note of orange blossom. On the palate, it's full-bodied, satiny and muscular, with a rich and layered core, ripe acids and a long finish.
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Wine Spectator
This white starts out smoky, with maturing flavors of baked apple, beeswax and butterscotch, backed by vibrant acidity. Picks up creaminess as this winds down on the long finish. Drink now through 2023. 100 cases imported.
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.