William Fevre has produced some excellent 2010 Chablis. After tasting through a selection of 2010 Chablis, I can tell you that the only bad news about the 2010 vintage is that it is smaller than 2009 in terms of quantity.

These wines were surprisingly forward and very charming for such a classic vintage. Don't get me wrong, the top level wines are massive and will need time to come together, but after reading the reviews, I just assumed that they would be a bit more hard-edged.

Unfortunately, 2010 is not a vintage where there will be many incredible deals. It is one of the smallest in terms of allocations that I have ever seen.

We did not necessarily need to taste the wines, as the critics gave them rave reviews, but I wanted a first-hand experience of the vintage and the producer. Even though we know the wines of William Fevre very well here at the Wine Watch, it is always a pleasure to open a few bottles from this top-level producer.

I have tasted the new releases from this winery for the last decade, and I would have to say that the wines keep getting better and better. With the Henriot’s commitment to this landmark property, Domaine William Fevre will continue to be known as one of the best in all of Chablis for some time to come. While the prices on other top level Burgundies are going into the stratosphere, these Premier and Grand Cru Chablis from Fevre look like a relative value.

Coming from a family that has been in the Chablis region for more than 250 years, William Fèvre’s father was already a great wine-maker after World War II. His son William founded the Domaine de la Maladière and announced his first harvest in 1959.


For many years, William Fèvre (who to this day enjoys a very good reputation as a defender of historically renowned terroirs), has worked each plot keenly and skillfully to make wines with personalities that reflect the authenticity of the soils from which they spring.

In 1998, the venerable Henriot family from Champagne succeeded him. To continue these focused efforts, the domaine was taken up with the constant desire to make indisputably genuine and fine wines, and above all with bringing along a very personal expertise in Chardonnay. All the efforts have but one goal – to finely express the most subtle variations in the greatest Chablis crus.

This attachment to the value of the terroir has also allowed the William Fèvre Domaine to establish an exceptional estate by acquiring some of the best Chablis vineyards. With 47 hectares, of which more than half are in Chablis Premier Cru (12 hectares) and Grand Cru (15.2 hectares), William Fèvre owns the widest array of Grands Crus and benefits from ideal conditions for producing excellent Chablis.

Located on “historical” terroirs, dating from before the extension of the vineyard areas that occurred in the 1970s, the William Fèvre Domaine is at the very heart of the vineyards, on soil that mixes marl and clay-rich lime, as well as a Kimmeridgian subsoil rich in minerals and oyster fossils that give Chablis its unique mineral character.

The Chablis terroirs constitute an ideal environment for the cultivation of Chardonnay, but this special soil is not in itself enough to create exceptional wines. One also needs the know-how and experience of human beings to help a terroir live up to its full potential, and to produce grapes and wines worthy of their appellations and faithful to their origins.

At William Fèvre, everything is done to reach this goal. Grapes are hand-picked and put in small crates, bunches are rigorously sorted out, pressings are short, the must carefully settled, and a fine balance is established, according to the vintage, for the vinification between vat and cask. Since the 1998 vintage, the proportion of new casks was reduced so as to not dampen the subtle variations of Chablis terroir. These methods and precautions allow producers to obtain rich wines of a very high aromatic purity, with principle characteristics of minerality and freshness.

The Chablis from 2010 are very pure and focused, with lovely concentration of fruit. But then, you could say that about Fevre almost every year. These 2010s have excellent structure and precision and will be better with a few years in the cellar. They do, however, have a good deal of fruit, so they may be appealing to some now. The Les Clos is KILLER with the Vaulorent close behind, and may be the best deal on this offering at close to half the price of the KILLER Les Clos.