2022 Domaine Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er Forest
“As I wrote last year, 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, and this is once again true of 2022, which retains the tension and salinity one seeks at this address in a vintage where many others have produced extremely fruit-driven, soft wines”
Today’s wine offer represents quintessential Chablis at its best. With much of the world already in love, it’s impossible to write about Vincent Dauvissat without being redundant.
Briefly, I’ll just say, these beautiful wines are chiseled, mineral driven and precise despite the warmer growing seasons influencing the style of Chablis and many growers. Vincent has been able to retain the freshness and cut that makes Chablis such a special wine.
The bad news is that the world has caught on to their brilliance, making these wines more difficult to acquire. Luckily, I’ve grabbed some and I’m delighted to present this very special allocation of European stock - part of the second bottling, which sees no filtration.
These are very much worth your attention, especially at this extremely competitive USA Pricing!
REVIEWS
A brilliant wine in the making, Dauvissat's 2022 Chablis 1er Cru La Forest unfurls in the glass with youthfully reductive scents of citrus oil, crisp stone fruit, white flowers, oyster shell and subtle hints of orange blossom. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and incisive, with superb depth at the core and an electric finish, this cuvée has navigated the vintage's extremes with ease.
- William Kelley, 93-96
There is ample citrus influence suffusing the nose that could be from nowhere else but Chablis with its array of seashore, algae and oyster shell scents. The caressing but notably denser and more powerful larger-bodied flavors coat the palate while retaining an attractive texture on the strikingly persistent finish that is shaped by bright acidity. This can't match the MdT for refinement but it is presently more complex and should age just as well.
- Burghound, 91-93 Sweet Spot Outstanding!
From William Kelley September 2023
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—takes place a little later in the year without filtration.
