Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a 0.16-hectare parcel of 25-year-old-vines and vinified entirely in tank, 2023 Chablis 1er Cru Beauregard is only the second edition Moreau has produced. Facing south but with a steep 40% incline, it has delivered a beautifully lively wine that unfurls to reveal notions of white flowers, grapefruit zest and green apple. On the palate, it’s medium-bodied, bright and incisive, with considerable energy and cut, concluding with a sapid finish. With just 12.5% alcohol, it’s the lowest level among premiers crus in the range this year.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Vinous
The 2023 Chablis Beauregard 1er Cru has a very backward nose that demands coaxing to reveal a light marine influence, with hints of shucked oyster shells. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity and a fresh, orange cordial-tinged entry. It feels cohesive and persistent on the finish, with a dab of spice on the aftertaste. This is very promising. 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.