Fevre Opens Its Cellars to Concierge: Chablis As It Ought to Be

DOMAINE WILLIAM FÈVRE
BURGUNDY, FRANCE 2023

 

WHY BUY:
Allen Meadows of Burghound calls Fèvre the "crème de la crème," and the excellent 2023 vintage shows this legend operating at the peak of its prodigious powers, with the critics bestowing some of the best scores for that year, including a 96-pointer for its always-magical Les Clos and three 95s (exceptional showings for white wines, which rarely receive the plaudits of their red counterparts). And folks, you simply don't find Grand Cru white Burgundy for less than $300 a bottle, making these exceptional values as well. "Wines from the Chablis vineyards are magical," gushed Saskia de Rothschild of Domaines Baron de Rothschild Lafite when her house acquired William Fèvre in 2023, with the promise of deeper investments in this grand estate. So the future is undoubtedly bright ... but there’s also no time like the present, as these  chiseled, concentrated, and delicately and soulfully expressive wines prove. Built to last in the cellar, they will imprint themselves in your mind and heart.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING:
The Grand Cru Les Clos commanded 96 points from Decanter, along with a review whose soaring words are hardly the norm: "Year after year, Fèvre's Les Clos is among the great wines of Chablis ... laden with pungent, salty mineral notes and a little smoky reduction—a bit of everything, really... It is truly a wine for the ages ... will last at least 40 years." Three wines here earned 95 points: Decanter praised the Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots as "chiselled and fine but still impressively powerful... [an] exotic, concentrated wine that will live for decades,” while showering the Premier Cru Montmains with equal acclaim, noting how "the texture is lively and fresh, yet there is substance here as well." Vinous awarded a potential 95 points to the Grand Cru Les Preuses, praising its texture and definition, and singling out "a touch of sea spray comes through with time and eventually gains admirable intensity."

OUR TASTING NOTES:
One quality stands above all in this 2023 class: these wines possess a delineation so precise it's almost unnerving. More than merely present, the Kimmeridgian soils leave their imprint, delivering a salinity that practically tastes like the sea and a minerality so flinty you could strike a match on it. All of these traits take time, of course, to come to the fore, but that’s part of the magic here: that these are living, changeable expressions, and that they will show you more and more of themselves as time unfolds. Among the characteristics that emerge as the wines open up, there’s a wonderful push-pull that plays out across the range, a dialogue between richness and acidity that keeps everything taut and alive rather than heavy or obvious. Finally: a few words, if I may, about the celestial Grand Cru Les Clos, which shows why critics lose their minds over Fèvre year after year. Those pungent, salty notes are everything. And to think: forty-million-year-old oyster shells speaking to you across time and place!

THE STORY:
Here's what makes William Fèvre's story fascinating: in 1957, he showed up in Chablis as an outsider in a region where everyone else's family had been making wine since the Middle Ages. Far from being intimidated, he immediately went to work, embarking on a shopping spree throughout the 1960s and ‘70s and snapping up some of the region's most prestigious parcels while other producers were consolidating or selling off. By the time he sold to Joseph Henriot in 1998, Fèvre had assembled what can only be described as Chablis's greatest hits collection: 78 hectares including land in six of the seven Grand Cru appellations. As Allen Meadows puts it, "No other Domaine comes even remotely close to matching what Fèvre owns.” The Henriot era heralded a new epoch. Winemaker Didier Séguier pivoted hard toward letting the terroir speak for itself; less oak, more precision, all minerality. The transformation was immediate and dramatic, and for more than a quarter century, the results have spoken for themselves — eloquently, forcefully, and with a touch, truly, of the transcendental.

THE SPECS:
Domaine William Fèvre is a passionate practitioner of organic viticulture across its village wines, with Premier and Grand Cru vineyards farmed biodynamically since 2020. The domaine has earned High Environmental Value (HVE) certification, the highest level of environmental recognition. Séguier's approach in the cellar emphasizes purity of expression: gravity-fed vinification in stainless steel to preserve freshness and primary characteristics, followed by 8-12 months of élevage in older French oak barrels with no new wood. And rarely have we heard of vineyard work that was more intensive and laborious than this: an average of 500-600 man hours per hectare compared to the regional average of 350, with some steep parcels requiring 1,000-1,200 hours due to manual ploughing using winches.

FUN FACT:
When Saskia de Rothschild's Domaines Baron de Rothschild Lafite acquired William Fèvre in 2023, she left little doubt about her regard for the house: "Wines from the Chablis vineyards are magical.” It was a frankly stunning statement from a family not generally given to hyperbole about anything beyond their own holdings in Pauillac.

OUR GUARANTEE:
As always, we only buy and ship directly from the estate, to ensure pristine provenance. Secure your bottles and cases today!