William Fevre "Vaillons" Chablis Premier Cru 2019

92 Points Wine Advocate

The 2019 Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons mingles aromas of crisp yellow orchard fruit and white peach with hints of beeswax and white flowers. Medium to full-bodied, enveloping but incisive, with tangy acids and fine depth at the core, it's long and saline. I left my tasting with Didier Séguier wondering if the 2019s might be the best vintage I've ever tasted at Domaine William Fèvre. At this address, the vintage's low yields have translated to wines of remarkable concentration, but Séguier has also achieved levels of cut and tension that are rare in contemporary Chablis. My only reservation (if one can call it that) is that these are serious, structured wines that are tightly wound and introverted after their recent bottling, a tendency no doubt amplified by their DIAM closures; therefore, many are surely destined to be drunk too young. But readers who purchase Fèvre's top 2019s and forget them for more than a decade are going to be richly rewarded, of that I'm confident. Aside from the quality of the 2019 vintage, the other big news here is that Fèvre is converting to organic farming, an ambitious and admirable project for this 78-hectare domaine.