Domaine Frederic & Celine Gueguen Chablis 2020
- Decanter
-
Wine
Enthusiast
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Mineral and fruity, Chablis is a wine of pleasure, to be enjoyed on any occasion. A surprisingly balanced wine, with richness, freshness and the legendary minerality that characterizes great years in Chablis.
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
A relatively recent estate, Céline's father is Jean-Marc Brocard, whilst Frédéric worked at Domaine Durup. They continue to make great strides with their Chablis. This is a lovely example with concentration on the palate and extra layers of flavour compared to many. Despite the power and ripeness of fruit, the wine is kept in perfect balance by crisp acidity and a fine, mineral finish. Great stuff.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Crushed stone and oyster shell offset pretty blossom and white peach in this fresh, lip-smacking Chardonnay. Although slim in profile, it offers plump pear and Mirabelle flavors lifted by a zesty spine of acidity. Vinified with no oak influence, it's a steely, mineral-intense sip best enjoyed now.
Other Vintages
2022-
Wine
Spectator
- Decanter
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The source of the most racy, light and tactile, yet uniquely complex Chardonnay, Chablis, while considered part of Burgundy, actually reaches far past the most northern stretch of the Côte d’Or proper. Its vineyards cover hillsides surrounding the small village of Chablis about 100 miles north of Dijon, making it actually closer to Champagne than to Burgundy. Champagne and Chablis have a unique soil type in common called Kimmeridgian, which isn’t found anywhere else in the world except southern England. A 180 million year-old geologic formation of decomposed clay and limestone, containing tiny fossilized oyster shells, spans from the Dorset village of Kimmeridge in southern England all the way down through Champagne, and to the soils of Chablis. This soil type produces wines full of structure, austerity, minerality, salinity and finesse.
Chablis Grands Crus vineyards are all located at ideal elevations and exposition on the acclaimed Kimmeridgian soil, an ancient clay-limestone soil that lends intensity and finesse to its wines. The vineyards outside of Grands Crus are Premiers Crus, and outlying from those is Petit Chablis. Chablis Grand Cru, as well as most Premier Cru Chablis, can age for many years.