Winemaker Notes
The Grand Cru Vaudésir majestically expresses duality, combining textural and aromatic opulence reminiscent of the finest wines of Meursault or Corton-Charlemagne, with a delicate touch of oak, subtle toasted notes, and hints of vanilla blossom.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
Pale lemon colour. As last year, the bouquet of the Vaudésir shows altogether more finesse than the Bougros. In fact, the nose is becoming rapidly more exciting. A central core of really intense white fruit, stones, a light lemon rinse but it is the white orchard fruit which dominates, impressively. Barrel sample: 92-95
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Vinous
The 2023 Chablis Vaudésir Grand Cru has quite a bit of reduction on the nose, which is typical for the domaine. There certainly is concentration here. The palate is well balanced with fine delineation. It's very focused and quite tangy, with hints of peach skin and apricot surfacing toward the persistent finish. It will need two or three years in bottle, but there is potential here for sure.
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.