Minerality is a loaded word in wine, and someone will always ask, with a raised eyebrow, whether you’ve ever actually tasted a stone, or whether you’re really just talking about acidity. I can tell them that I have.
After sitting down for a Chablis menu matching at The Chancery I gave a lump of Kimmeridgian limestone, studded with fossilised oyster shells, a good lick, having very nearly mistaken it for the bread.
Why would anyone want pain in their wine?
The evening was hosted by Douglas Blyde, with a three-course dinner devised by chef Graham Long, and I found myself sitting next to a very nice man who turned to me as we sat down and asked, in some despair, why anyone would want pain in their wine. I think he meant acidity. Apart from the fact that my jaded palate appreciates a good jolt now and again, the best Chablis vintages have excellent acidity, which lets the wine handle almost any food and throw some interesting flavours back. Add texture and weight, and you can see why Douglas calls good Chablis the supreme food collaborator.
My reservations
I’ll admit I had my doubts. A whole evening of Chardonnay isn’t my usual idea of fun, and Chablis can be hit and miss. When the vintage is wrong, instead of a finely etched poem engraved on precious metal, you get something flabby and forgettable. And because Chablis is a name that sells itself, some producers are tempted to over-produce and coast, instead of honouring the remarkable geology they’ve inherited.
From the first crab beignet and glass of wine pressed into my hand, I could tell this evening would be different. In any case, few white Burgundy producers have had enough wine over recent vintages to churn out anything cynical, even if they wanted to.
The 2012 vintage
Of the recent vintages, 2010 is the finest, though there’s very little of it left. The 2011 is an early-drinking style, while 2012 has power and a fuller body, if perhaps not quite the same finesse, and that richness shows even in the Grand Cru wines, which are surprisingly approachable already.
The real pain in 2012 was felt by the growers, as frost and hail cut yields sharply across Chablis and the rest of Burgundy. It’s worth remembering, though, that Chablis sits apart from the Côte d’Or, roughly an hour and a half north of Dijon, so Burgundy’s vintage reports don’t always tell you much about it, and the conditions in Champagne can almost be a better guide to the style. Volumes are small, and in wine speak, that’s your cue to stock up where you can.
For the wine lover, the best Chablis offers a delicious kind of pain, as any Chablis fanatic will tell you with a twinkle in their eye. Without getting too Fifty Shades, the love of acidity in some circles does border on the masochistic, as the finest examples are austere, with little fruit and a sharp crack of minerality.
A Petit Chablis that stole the show
The first wine of the evening, the 2012 Dauvissat-Camus Petit Chablis, was the surprise of the night, outshining wines from grander appellations. Petit Chablis is usually a slight thing, often treated as an afterthought or used to fill gaps in a short vintage, and it comes from outside the town, away from the famous Kimmeridgian soils. In Dauvissat’s hands, though, it was a triumph. For a winemaker who insists that terroir is everything, he may be underselling himself, because his winemaking clearly has something to do with its depth and song.
Dauvissat-Camus Petit Chablis 2012
It was a tough act to follow. From there, the wines climbed through the appellations, from Chablis to Premier Cru and Grand Cru, with a pair of wines from each level matched to a course. This wasn’t the classic Chablis menu of oysters or rabbit in mustard sauce, as Graham Long’s dishes were modern, intricate and full of competing flavours, and I wondered whether the purity of the wines would survive them.
Tartare of trout, poached apple, nettle purée, macadamia nuts and trout eggs
With the trout tartare, the 2011 Jean-Marc Brocard Montée de Tonnerre didn’t quite have the breath, or the breadth, to match the 2012s, lacking the acidity the dish called for. The cool, mineral 2012 Val de Mercy Beauregards, on the other hand, navigated the competing flavours with ease.
The Grand Crus
The Grand Cru flight brought two famous vineyards, the 2012 William Fèvre Les Clos and the 2013 Samuel Billaud Les Preuses, served with roasted quail, a cannelloni of the leg and foie gras, sweetcorn, hazelnuts, pickled mushrooms and wild garlic.
Roasted quail, cannelloni of the leg and foie gras
Coco Chanel is said to have called elegance a matter of refusal, and the best Chablis knows exactly what to refuse. There are no unnecessary flavours, no flouncy fruit and no masking oak, just wine in a minimalist style. At its purest, Grand Cru Chablis has almost no fruit at all beyond the taste of stone, oyster shell and spring water, finishing long and creamy.
Lesser wines might have buckled under so many flavours, but these two handled the dish with ease and still showed their own personality, almost as if they were relieved to have a proper challenge instead of being poured as just another aperitif.
Final thoughts
Chablis is the classic aperitif wine, the glass you reach for after work or with friends, but it can be so much more. Ask what food goes best with it, and there’s no single answer, as this dinner showed that the right match depends on the vintage, the age of the wine and the producer.
Menu
Chablis food pairing at The Chancery London with Douglas Blyde
Aperitif: 2012 Dauvissat-Camus Petit Chablis, with truffle arancini and crab beignet
Chablis: 2012 Garnier & Fils Grains Dorés and 2014 Louis Moreau, with marinated raw hand-dived scallops, cucumber jelly, avocado cream, sesame and shiso dressing
Chablis Premier Cru: 2011 Jean-Marc Brocard Montée de Tonnerre and 2012 Val de Mercy Beauregards, with tartare of trout, poached apple, nettle purée, macadamia nuts and trout eggs
Chablis Grand Cru: 2012 William Fèvre Les Clos and 2013 Samuel Billaud Les Preuses, with roasted quail, cannelloni of the leg and foie gras, sweetcorn, hazelnuts, pickled mushrooms and wild garlic
Mature Chablis: 2003 Domaine Pinson Chablis Premier Cru Forêts, with a selection of British cheeses from Neal’s Yard Dairy
Thank you to Douglas Blyde for hosting a wonderful evening at The Chancery.
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