Flight School

Back in ye olden days of drinking in the United States, we knew far less about wine than we do now. The most accessible wines we had in the 1970s and 1980s were often found in three-liter jugs. Mystery wines with names like "Hearty Burgundy," and "Rhine Riesling." We just took those names for what they were and moved on. We paid no attention to the authenticity of the wines and where they came from. Eventually, wines were increasingly imported from Europe that displayed unique character and tasted great. Demand increased for these wines of provenance. Consumers today want to know more about wine than ever before. One particular wine that is benefiting from a change in consumer attitudes is Chablis.

Thanks to a solid stretch of quality vintages, Chablis is gaining a lot of steam; here on the shores of Eastern Connecticut, summer visitors and seafood lovers can't wait to get their hands on bottles. These steely, high-acid wines are made solely from Chardonnay grapes. Because the style is so lean and so Old World-like in nature, I love recommending these wines to people who are in the "Anything But Chardonnay" crowd. Thanks to its location in the far north of Burgundy (and physically closer to the Champagne regions than its closest Burgundian neighbor), the growing season is short, but gets plenty of sunshine during critical times in the development of healthy grapes. The result is ripe grapes that are not fleshy in texture that you find in Napa Valley examples, but rather the other end of the spectrum: light, lean, and exceptionally food-friendly.

I was fortunate enough to have gone to a tasting earlier in the year where I sampled many 2016 vintages from several producers. The one conclusion I could come to across all of the wines is that they were surprisingly fruity and approachable for being so young. Many Chablis wines can be "tight", where all you feel is the acid in the wine's youth and it needs time to come together in the bottle for a few years. But if you encounter a 2016 Chablis, you will have a great feel for the style, though with rough weather reducing the crop sizes you may be paying a few bucks more per bottle than you would have in 2015. Domaine Christian Moreau and Domaine Billaud-Salmon are two producers in particular that stood out, so look for their wines.

Additionally, if you can get your hands on a bottle of Josephine Dubois' Chablis Premier Cru Montmains "Terre Minerale", it's a great way to try a wine from a really good vineyard while staying in the $25ish range.

Now as for how this ties into the jug and box wines that you see on the shelves labeled "Chablis", note that these wines typically source Chenin Blanc and Colombard grapes from the hot Central Valley of California; they are easy to grow and mass-produce to keep the costs down. You can get a lot of wine for very little money, but it is certainly not going to be Chablis. With that, I have to mention that this was a favorite wine of my store manager when I worked in New Jersey. My old coworker (and current friend) and I used to joke with her about the Peter Vella box of Chablis she would bring to the beach and drop ice cubes into it. So even though it is not the real thing, not Chardonnay, not from France...I raise a glass of it today after she passed away suddenly last week.

The lesson as always...drink what you enjoy, no matter what it is.