Vincent Dauvissat Chablis Vaillons 1er Cru 2020

CRITICAL ACCLAIM:

"As is almost invariably the case, Dauvissat's 2020 Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons is sensual and perfumed, wafting from the glass with aromas of orange oil, peach, jasmine and nutmeg. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and enveloping, it's vibrant and fleshy, with an ample core of fruit, racy acids and a long, saline finish.

Technically retired but very much a continuing presence at his eponymous domaine, Vincent Dauvissat—who forsook a career as a shepherd to become one of France's most celebrated vignerons—seemed 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 bottling—some of which is sealed with wax, some of which sees a foil capsule—will come out a little later in the year and will not be filtered." - 94 PTS., WILLIAM KELLEY, WINE ADVOCATE (07/2022)