Chablis Champs Royaux

The wine in the previous post, Santenay,  took my mind to a spring walk in the woods with some dark aromas highlighted by spring growth.  Yesterday's wine was more like a late summer afternoon full of clean air, summer flowers and sunshine when the fall fruits are starting to mature.    The wine was a 2007 William Fevre Chablis, Champ Royaux, and entry level wine from this producer. This is a wine that I generally buy and drink and do not think about aging, so finding this almost six year old wine in the bottom of the cellar where the bottles that need aging time usually live was a surprise. 

It got a slight chill while I worked on dinner - a fillet of Arctic Char, a sliced tomato and some faro dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.   The first pour was beautiful.  The color was light gold with green edges to it and showed no signs of being six years old.  The aroma was full of apple and sweet green grapes and citrus zest.  The flavor was dominated by the apples, but not the sharp, tart apples of a young Chablis. These were sweeter apple flavors from a richer fruit and were kissed by a bit of honey.  The green grapes came through on the end of the wine with that flavor lingering on the sides of the tongue at the very back.  All the wonderful Chablis acidity was there to keep things alive and fresh.

I feared when I saw this wine that I might have waited too long to drink it, but the truth is that I may have consumed the others too young.  This was a wonderful wine that seemed more like a premier cru than an entry level wine.  As with the Santenay - this wine made me very happy.  I have both the 2009 and 2010 vintages of this wine in the cellar and they have now moved to the "hold" section. 

2007 William Fevre Chablis,  Champs Royaux.  12.5% alcohol and $19.