A Chablis Strategy
Over the past several months I’ve been writing about the difficulties that the 2024 growing season presented for the vignerons in Chablis. It was one thing after another all creating the perfect storm for what will go down as one of the worst harvests for the region on record. I opened the most recent issue of Burghound, and I think Allen has summed it up as concisely as anyone could.
2024 Summary – The Most Difficult Growing Season of the 21st Century
“Chablis just took one body blow after another as basically everything that could go wrong in fact did…there was a devastating early season frost, the banks of the Serein overflowed 3 times, there were not 1, not 2 but 3 hailstorms, the flowering was troubled, the worst attack of mildew anyone alive can remember (yes, even worse than in 2016), oidium, sun burned fruit, an attack of botrytis just before the harvest and then, as if all that wasn’t enough, a massive rainstorm during the harvest!” Burghound Issue 100 |
Growers I’ve spoken with echo the same story. Yields dropped to the lowest levels in living memory, in many cases falling into the single digits (hectoliters per hectare). If the frost didn't get you, the mildew did!
To put it in perspective, a typical healthy Chablis vintage across the region yields on average around 50 hl/ha, or roughly 6,650 bottles (~550 cases) per hectare. Allen noted that Vincent Dauvissat’s yields were 6 hl/ha, which would yield approximately 798 bottles per hectare. Given the domaine’s 12 hectares of vines, that means fewer than 800 cases were produced in total—an almost unimaginable shortfall for one of the region’s most iconic producers.
The silver lining? In the rare instances where there was fruit to harvest, the resulting wines turned out extraordinary—tense, concentrated, and shimmering with Chablis’ hallmark purity. But with such microscopic quantities, if you are lucky enough to secure some of these, expect prices to be up substantially.
This is where the buying opportunity has presented itself. Over the past several months I've been scouring the market for the best of what is currently available, and have come up with some amazing wines. I’ve added a few additional listings of 2023 William Fevre (another producers with microscopic quantities in 2024), a re-load of a couple of cases each on 2022 Samuel Billaud MDT & Sechets (in stock and not to be missed!). There are a couple of back vintages of Louis Michel that are worth your attention - hard to beat those prices! Some new wines also from Moreau Naudet, and of course a few listings from Chablis icons, Dauvissat & Raveneau. If you love Chablis as much as I do, I’d suggest moving to secure some of these as its going to be "slim pickings" until some of the 2025’s start to hit the market at the end of next year.
Anything listed as Pre Arrival on the site will be arriving at the end of November. Secure some today - you will be glad you did!
