Winemaker Notes
A structured, lively and mineral wine with good length on the palate. Both straightforward and fresh, with exemplary concentration.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
Made up of all three parts of Montmains, mostly Forêts and Butteaux which is picked later. Currently cloudy but the bouquet can speak for the wine. Attractive delicate white fruits, not very reductive this year, while the fruit really builds on the second half of the palate and the finish does deliver some kimmeridgian minerals. Racy at the end but also a touch softer than some years. Drink from 2025-2029.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
Vinous
The 2021 Chablis Montmains Premier Cru comes from 3.8 hectars within the three climats, one-third each, and is generally a late ripening cuvee. The aromatics were very primal on the nose with touches of grapefruit and grass clippings. The palate is well-balanced with a citrus thread of acidity, fairly steely with a twist of sour lemon towards the finish. Quite a penetrating Montmains, this will deserve three or four years in bottle.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
Decanter
A blend from all three sectors of the Montmains Premier Cru. Seguier says that Butteaux adds the tension whilst Montmains adds the weight. Quite soft and generous, attractive already with a touch of honey balanced with crisp acidity to balance the soft fruit character on the palate. White peach notes.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Chablis 1er Cru Montmains delivers notes of green apple, ripe lemon oil, white flowers and clam liquor, followed by a medium to full-bodied, satiny and racy palate that's fine-boned and precise, concluding with a bright, saline finish.
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Wine Spectator
Lithe and vibrant, offering green plum, lime, fresh herb and flint notes backed by a steely structure. Finds equilibrium on the lean side, with a lingering mineral and elderflower finish. Drink now through 2027. 140 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.