2020 | Vincent Dauvissat | Les Clos (Magnum)

White Wine: 2020 | Vincent Dauvissat | Les Clos (Magnum)

The nose soars from the glass in a blend of apple, pear, lime zest, a stunning base of flinty, chalky, wet stone minerality and oyster shell, vanillin oak and a top note of fruit blossoms.

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Producer: Vincent Dauvissat

Ratings: WA | 98 D | 96

Vintage: 2020

Size: 1.5L

ABV: 13%

Varietal: Chardonnay

Country/Region: France, Burgundy

The nose soars from the glass in a blend of apple, pear, lime zest, a stunning base of flinty, chalky, wet stone minerality and oyster shell, vanillin oak and a top note of fruit blossoms. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and shows off a gorgeous core of fruit, but the real beauty here is in the stunningly complex base of minerality, coupled with vibrant acids, impeccable focus and grip and a very, very long, dancing and seamlessly balanced finish.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: I generally have a slight preference for Dauvissat’s Les Preuses, a preference I suspect Vincent Dauvissat shares, but the 2020 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos, at least at this early stage, gets my nod as the king of the cellarand the wine of the vintage. Wafting from the glass with aromas of citrus oil, fresh bread, oyster shell, white flowers and wet stones, it’s full-bodied, layered and textural, with huge concentration, racy acids and a long, resonant finish. Technically retired but very much a continuing presence at his eponymous domaine, Vincent Dauvissatwho forsook a career as a shepherd to become one of France’s most celebrated vigneronsseemed just as delighted with his 2020s as he had been with his 2019s. Chiseled, concentrated and pungently mineral, there’s no grower in the region who has done a better job of retaining all of Chablis’s classical signatures in the warmer, sunnier vintages of the last decade. Once again, Dauvissat has produced some of the wines of the vintage, and they will be worth a special effort to seek out. Readers will remember that farming here is organic but without certification. The harvest is by hand, and the wines ferment in tank before racking to barrel with the lees (Raveneau’s Chablis, by contrast, are racked to barrel more or less without their lees), spending a second winter in wood before bottling. A first bottling, destined for the American market, sees a light filtration, while a second bottlingsome of which is sealed with wax,

• Decanter: Dauvissat’s Les Clos lives up to its grand cru billing with great power and concentration evident. Subtle orange-box notes on the palate, a hint of peach and apricot, matched with driving apple acidity and fresh salty, chalky notes. The purity and clarity of the wine is so impressive. Drinking Window 2024 – 2037.

Producer Information

Vincent Dauvissat is one of the most prestigious producers from the Chablis region of northern Burgundy. It is family-owned and -operated and has been selling wine under the family name since 1931. In 1976 Vincent began helping his father Ren Dauvissat and he has since taken over. The wines can be bottled as Vincent Dauvissat or Domaine Dauvissat-Camus the latter denoting wider family holdings farmed and made by Dauvissat. Chablis in general is known for its steely, crisp wines made from Chardonnay. The soil of the best sites is Kimmeridgian, a mineral-rich clay with significant lime content formed by a high density of marine fossils. Vincent Dauvissat has sections in two Grand Cru vineyards: Les Clos and Les Preuses. Additionally, Dauvissat boasts four premier cru sites: Schet, Vaillons, Montmains, and the acclaimed La Fort (labeled by Dauvissat as “La Forest”), the quality of which can approach that of the grand crus in good vintages. Dauvissat also produces a Villages Chablis and a Petit Chablis. However, the small size of Dauvissat’s basic Chablis holding (on the opposite side of the valley to the La Fort vineyard) and its correspondingly small production means it can be the hardest of the wines to find. The fruit is naturally farmed and hand-harvested. No destemming is done (the wines are all whole bunch pressed) and malolactic fermentation occurs spontaneously. Winter temperatures cause the tartrates to precipitate out of the wine and beyond this, the wines are unfined. Unconventionally for Chablis, Dauvissat forgoes btonnage (regular lees stirring). Vincent Dauvissat is also one of the few Chablis producers to use oak barrels during levage (the wines’ maturation in cellar), though the barrels used are 6-8 years old. The belief is that the oak is essential in developing the body and structure of the wine, but old barrels are used so that the flavor characteristics are unaffected.