Domaine GILLES & NATHALIE FÈVREFontenay-Pres-Chablis
Husband and wife team Gilles and Nathalie are steeped in Chablis, with deep roots in the area. They produce a small range of top-class wines from their old vine holdings.
Background
Gilles and his wife, Nathalie, combine wine-making skills to make wines where aromas, texture and flavour provide a haunting reminder that Chablis’ unique fossil-based clay soil is an ancient seabed. Their 15-hectare domaine comprises mostly of vineyards handed down to Gilles, as a member of Chablis’ pre-eminent family. The highly articulate Nathalie is a former winemaker at La Chablisienne. They offer a modest portfolio of one Chablis, three 1er Crus and one Grand Cru, Les Preuses. All their wines are unoaked, except the flagship Vaulorent. This has 10% one/two-year oak, made from old vines which skirt the bottom of the Grand Cru Preuses, and has a vibrant definition.
The issue in Chablis is lack of stock due to frost and hail in 2016, where volumes are down by 60% in some vineyards.
Current Vintages
| White Wines | Vintage |
|---|---|
| Petit Chablis [Read More] Nathalie makes her Petit Chablis with pleasure in mind, it is a zippy chardonnay made to drink while young and fresh, a lovely summer picnic wine. | 2019 |
| Chablis [Read More] The Fevre village Chablis is a blend of over 50 small plots scattered throughout the appellation. The vines average 40 years old. By blending so many different plots together the domaine is able to produce a wine that is textbook Chablis, dry, flinty and full of zesty citrus fruit. | 2020 |
| Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume [Read More] Amongst the most recognisable of the Chablis 1er Cru vineyards is Fourchaume, sitting just above the Serine river. The Fevre vines lie in the section with a south-westerly aspect, planted on near pure limestone. This wine always has a richness from its sunny exposition which is countered by a fine mineral spine from the Limestone below. | 2019 |
| Chablis 1er Cru Mont de Milieu [Read More] To the east we find Mont de Milieu, where a slightly cooler micro climate and very poor soils give elegant wines with racy acidity and feather like complexity. Although not as powerful as some these wines can age magnificently in good vintages. | 2018 |
| Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre [Read More] Probably the most famous 1er Cru in Chablis. A new negotiant wine, currently not farmed organically, but in conversion. Famous for the balance and complexity of its wines.
“A new negociant addition to the range, with a pretty pale lemon colour. This is steely through the middle, and then with characteristic opulence behind. Older barrels mark the wine less. Long ripe spicy finish.”
Jasper Morris, Inside Burgundy, tasted June 2021 | 2020 |
| Chablis 1er Cru Vaulorent [Read More] Nathalie thinks this wine has ‘the memory of the sea’ and I won’t argue, one doesn’t need to be a poet to imagine the ancient shellfish in the wine’s spine of minerality. Vaulorent lies within the better known Fourchaume 1er Cru just above the Grand Cru les Preuses. It has a particularly rocky soil as well as a very good south-western exposure. It sees a little oak, around 15%, for structure rather than flavour. | 2018 |
| Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses [Read More] Lying between Bougros and Vaudésir with a near perfect south west aspect. The soils here are deeper than in Vaulorent above, giving wines which combine oyster shell minerality with a deep power grounded in the earth. Les Preuses is a wine of geology. | 2016 |
Image Gallery
Keep in touch
Sign up to hear the latest news and receive tasting invitations. Our monthly newsletter and weekly offers will give you up to date with our growers and team, as well as providing fantastic offers on the wines we import, without clogging your inbox with today’s deal of the century.