2017 Clotilde Davenne
Domaine Les Temps Perdus
Chablis, FR
Regular Price $28.99
Sale Price $22.99
So, back in the day, long before the Judgement of Paris, California wineries sought to emulate the French. They did this in their approach to winemaking (the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Napa and Sonoma Cabs are probably the most Bordeaux-like wines ever made outside of Bordeaux) but mostly by appropriating the names of storied wine regions. So Gallo made a Hearty Burgundy, and Korbel made Champagne, and nearly everyone made chablis.
While some suggest that imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery, these products were not made to imitate the actual product, but rather to bestow some degree of credibility on the less-than-impressive knock-offs. ‘Champagne’ became synonymous with any carbonated wine, ‘Burgundy’ became the catchword for ripe, juicy reds and ‘chablis’ meant a light, slightly sweet wine from a jug or box. Now, 40 or 50 years later, while almost no one thinks the many juicy reds from California are ‘Burgundies’, some still call all carbonated wines ‘champagne’. And Chablis is forever thought of as chablis.
Chablis (the place) is the northernmost wine-making region in Burgundy. Chablis (the wine) must be made of Chardonnay (there is no allowable red wine made in Chablis) and by virtue of the north (cool) climate and the soil (Kimmeridgian clay, with outcrops of the same chalk layer that extends from Sancerre up to the White Cliffs of Dover), the chardonnay from Chablis is usually less fruity and more acidic than those from warmer areas. Additional, most ‘basic’ Chablis is traditionally unoaked, vinified in stainless steel tanks. These wines often have a “flinty” note, sometimes described as “goût de pierre à fusil” (“tasting of gunflint”), and sometimes as “steely”. They are almost always crisp, lean and lively, with a measure of transparency that allows for aromas and flavors of the chalky soil.
Clotilde Davenne is the proprietor and winemaker of Domaine Les Temps Perdus. Her wines are not expressions of her imagination but of her skill and the soil, the climate and the history and traditions of Chablis. This vintage is redolent of fresh apple with a long finish of lemon and that famed minerality. The chablis of California is similar only in its spelling.