Roland Lavantureux Petit Chablis 2019
Background
If pressed, any wine professional worth their salt would include Chablis in a list of best Chardonnay in the world. The tiny town of Chablis has become famous for crisp, fresh white wines with incredible depth of minerality and a real sense of place.
Chablis is a full 160km north of Beaune (which is THE place for Chardonnay in Burgundy), and is therefore closer geographically to Champagne than the rest of the Burgundian Chardonnay. The secret to Chablis’ success here is the geology. East of the town itself, across the Serein River, is the rim of a HUGE geological feature called the Kimmeridge. The prehistoric shoreline of an ancient saltwater ocean, the Kimmeridge stretches from this part of France all the way to the English Channel. The soil here is a pudding of clay and million-year-old shellfish fossils. These features impart a very distinct chalky minerality that can add depth to these cool climate, light white wines.
Roland Lavantureux founded the domaine in 1978, his sons David and Arnaud have now taken over, and they are at the top of the list of rising stars in Burgundy. These young Chablisien prodigies have taken an already stellar family domaine and lifted it to the next level. We chose this wine from Lavantureux specifically to show that the quality levels in the lower two tiers aren’t always as straightforward as the wine lawmakers would have us believe. Generally speaking, Petit Chablis is seen as the lowest rung on the ladder of quality. The main difference between Petit and just Chablis is subsoil. Chablis vineyards are on top of Kimmeridgian Limestone, whereas Petit Chablis are on Portlandian Limestone. The key is geology and not geography. However, these particular Petit Chablis vineyards are all Southeast facing, and as such, would be candidates for Premier Cru level, were the subsoil made of the correct version of chalk. Complicated!!! We know, but fun too:) It's helpful to think of this not as an expensive Petit Chablis (retails around $35), but instead a steal that rivals Premier Cru quality.
Food Pairing
Frozen Fish Sticks – Chablis’ minerality is fantastic with any seafood. The extended lees contact (10months, almost as long as in Champagne!) imparts baked, yeasty aromas that go great with bread and crispy crunchy deep-fried things.
Tabbouleh – This is a case of opposites attracting. The bitter, green, vegetal parsley will bring out the fruit in an otherwise lean, tart wine, and the acid in the wine will refresh your palate after all the olive oil.
Hickory Sticks – Not the most popular snack in the chip aisle, but we’d think they’d be fun with this wine. Hickory sticks REALLY show that crispy, caramelized starch thing that is so great with lees contact.
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