GOOD TASTE / A CRAVING FOR CHABLIS

GUEST BLOG / By Claudine Ko; Photos by Michel Joly--Chablis, the northernmost appellation of Bourgogne, produces some of the region’s best-known wines among Americans. Located southeast of Paris, it sits as a high-acid island, geographically separated from the rest of the province by the rugged Morvan forest. Its proximity to the capital once made Chablis the “house white” of Parisian cafes, a logistical bond forged by the Yonne River. From here, Bourgogne itself stretches south in a slender 75-mile corridor through eastern France to the Mâconnais. 

 

Just outside the village of Chablis, roads cut through hills blanketed in grids of dormant vines — gnarled decades-old wood standing alongside new plantings. Robin Kick, a Master of Wine, crouched between the rows and retrieved a small, chalky gray rock. It was Kimmeridgian limestone, a prehistoric seabed dense with fossilized shells. “You get this oyster-shell taste, this pronounced salinity,” she said. “It’s really fresh. I actually crave Chablis.” 

 The hierarchy of the wines is written in the landscape, a principle that holds across all of Bourgogne: Chablis Grand Cru occupy the steepest south-facing slopes, producing the appellation’s most rare, complex and age-worthy wines; Chablis Premier Cru wines claim the gentler grades below; Village wines spread across the lower skirts and Petit Chablis occupies the plateau edges. Though all the vines are chardonnay, the tilt of the land and geology beneath ensure every wine is distinct. 

At Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne, a biennial trade showcase held in March that brought wine professionals from nearly 60 countries to taste across all five of the region’s appellations, Jean-François Bordet and Paul Espitalié, co-presidents of the Chablis office of the Bourgogne Wine Board, made the case for value. 

For Mr. Espitalié, the entry-level Petit Chablis is the region’s most approachable ambassador. “It will be very fresh, very fruity, with quite a light body,” he said. “It’s very easy drinking. When you finish a glass, you want another glass.” 

 Mr. Bordet adds: “People everywhere want white wine that’s dry, fruity, crisp.” With climate shifts, Chablis now delivers that consistently; a string of warmer summers have produced wines with a balance of fruit and acidity that appeals directly to the modern American palate.