Chablis 2020

Favourable conditions meant the pressure was off for grateful producers, with an abundance of good to excellent wines. The many Chablis admirers of the world should make hay while the sun shines…

- ANDY HOWARD MW

Chablis 2020 continues a run of very fine vintages in this key Burgundy appellation. The word most heard during my recent visit to Chablis was ‘classic’. While 2020 may not quite have the linear acidity of 2014, there are a lot of similarities with 2017, another classic year.

Although 2020 was a very early vintage, it was not a particularly hot one and managed to avoid the dramatic heat spikes of 2018 and 2019. My high tasting scores suggested that this is a vintage which can be rated at least four stars, with a wide incidence of five-star wines.

Domaine Séguinot Bordet’s Jean-François Bordet, president of the BIVB Chablis commission, says ‘it was a very classic vintage’. Olivier Bailly (Domaine Billaud-Simon) echoes that verdict, confirming: ‘2020 is more like 2014 and 2017 than 2018 or 2019.’ Vincent Dauvissat, whom I visited while he was dashing around in the cellar moving wines between barrels, stopped long enough to describe the year as a ‘magnificent’ vintage. On a visit to Domaine François Raveneau, Isabelle Raveneau reconfirmed the general view, noting that 2020 was ‘more classic than 2019’.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Following the reduced crop in 2019, and the exceedingly difficult 2016 vintage (devastated by bouts of frost and hail), the weather in 2020 was generally kind to Chablis producers. Winter saw plenty of rainfall to boost water reserves and the mild start to the year encouraged early budburst, although producers feared the worst when temperatures plummeted at the end of March and early April. Bailly said he had spent seven nights in his vineyards lighting frost-protection candles (bougies), but fortunately damage was slight and only affected the lowest sites.