Winemaker Notes
Complex aromas with floral, fruity, and intense mineral notes. Structured palate in its youth, becoming more subtle and elegant in developing ripe fruit notes.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Fevre's Montée de Tonnerre comes from all three sectors. Seguier notes that Pied d'Aloup has the highest marn content, Montée de Tonnerre adds weight and the old Chapelot vines (planted in 1936) add finesse. More closed on the nose. Weighty, concentrated, persistent. Saline notes. Will be a great gourmand wine. Some white flower notes, lots of zesty orange and grapefruit on the palate with a nice touch of white peach. For long ageing.
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Jasper Morris
Still cloudy after racking. Didier describes the blend as including Chapelot, for sunshine, Pied d’Aloue on marl for freshness, while the Côte de Bréchain provides concentration from the oldest vines (1936). The 2021 Montée de Tonnerre has a very classy nose, without the now habitual sunny yellow fruit, cooler and fresher. All a little bit unknit after racking but the component parts are clearly there, with excellent fresh acidity and length. Drink from 2026-2032.
Barrel Sample: 91-94 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre is a lovely classic, unwinding in the glass to reveal aromas of white flowers, citrus zest, crisp green apple and oyster shells, followed by a medium to full-bodied, satiny and incisive palate that's pure, layered and structured, concluding with a penetrating finish. Rating: 93+
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Wine Enthusiast
ontee de Tonnerre Premium Cru (Chablis). The nose is vibrant, initially hinting at reduction before unfolding with delicate notes of white rose, lemongrass, light yogurt, and soft stone. On the palate, the wine is bright and precise, with an added layer of lemon pith and a persistent limestone minerality that intensifies with aeration.
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Wine Spectator
An intense white, whose fleshy texture envelops peach, apple and lemon flavors. Round and beautifully balanced, this picks up a mineral element on the lengthy finish. Drink now through 2030. 80 cases imported.
Domaine William Fèvre is a historical and environmental pioneer in Chablis. The domaine covers a total of 78 hectares, including 15 hectares of Grand Cru vineyards as the largest Grand Cru landowner in Chablis. The domaine is also comprised of 16 hectares of Premiers Crus, including icons such as Vaulorent, Montmains, and Les Lys, among many others. William Fèvre has been committed to a strong environmental approach for more than 20 years, receiving their HVE3 certification in 2014. Domaine William Fèvre does everything possible to express the most subtle variations in Chablis' climats and to offer wines that give everyone, from novices to connoisseurs, the opportunity to enjoy an experience characterized by a superb expression of purity and minerality.
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.