Benchmark Wines by
Domaine William Févre
The Winery
Domaine William Févre
"Wine is sunlight, held together by water."
- Galileo
One of the most celebrated and sought after wines in Chablis, William Févre founded the winery he chose as his namesake in 1957. With over 100 acres planted to grand and premier cru, Févre has grown immensely since being sold to Joseph Henriot, a Champagne house, while Févre moved to Chile to practice oenology abroad.
Stylistically, the wines are oaky, sometimes too oaky for those with low threshold. Since the winey changed hands, the oak treatment has curtailed quite a bit. The delicate fruit is always hand harvested, to ensure intact and uncompromised grapes. Févre himself was incredibly dedicated to the Chablis grape, and fought hard to keep fine lines drawn as to what qualified and what didn’t, and making sure the term was not bastardized. These wines are classic, quintessential Chablis. Vintages to look out for include 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005.
Tasting Notes
- WA94
- The Fevre 2011 Les Clos represents another vivid contrast with a corresponding 2012. The intensity of attack and grip of the latter are replaced here by mineral and herbal complexity that sneak up on your nose and a palate notable for its delicacy, transparency and lift. True, you could say that this is looser than the 2012, but that’s a judgment relative to a rather extreme exemplar of the latter vintage. Harmonious ripeness of white peach and citrus is shot-through with saliva-inducing oyster liqueur, incorporating shimmering suggestions of things saline, alkaline, seaweed-like and stony.
- BH94
- As it was from cask last year this remains quite closed but aggressive swirling liberates ripe aromas of sea breeze, pear, lemon rind, oyster shell and mineral reduction plus an abundance of typical floral scents. The large-scaled flavors are overtly powerful and impressively concentrated as there is plenty of palate staining dry extract that also buffers the very firm acidity that supports and shapes the gorgeously precise finish. This explosively long effort possesses exquisite balance and the tightly wound flavors are going to need at least 5 to 7 years of bottle age to really flesh out and blossom. This is also a knock-out.
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