Domaine Vincent Wengier Chablis

Vincent Chablis
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Vincent Chablis

 Domaine Vincent Wengier Chablis – Organic

Domaine Vincent Wengier is located in Préhy, on the left bank of the Serein, in the southwestern part of Chablis.

Vincent is the third generation to farm this land, but the first to bottle his own wines.   

From the Bourgogne Aligoté, through the Chardonnay, and into the Chablis, the wines from Vincent Wengier are full of tension and energy. Wengier’s winemaking style prefers no oak and prolonged aging on the lees in stainless steel, this gives the fruit-forward wines a beautiful texture and savory complexity that keeps you coming back to your glass. The Chablis comes from the estate’s 35-year-old vines which are planted on the region’s revered Kimmeridgian soils and the wine is embellished with a driving mineral backbone that lifts the fruit and lingers so cleanly.

Since taking over from his parents in 1998, he has transitioned to organic farming while doubling his vineyard size from 29 to over 65 acres. 

He’s a new player in Chablis who is making wines worth talking about. After selling grapes to négotiants for 20 years, he started his own label in 2018, following his “passion to make wine and talk about my wine.”

He still sells to La Chablisienne, the historic quality cooperative, as a form of income insurance while he’s starting up – a wise strategy considering Chablis’s weather issues (this is the second consecutive April damaging frost hit the area), and a prescient one that helped mitigate two years when the pandemic canceled trade activities. 

Most plots surround the winery on Chablis-classic Kimmerdgian soils with prime southern exposure.  Vine age is 35 years old on average.

Pressing is ancestral, with an open press being used, which allows for the wines to resist oxidation in the future, then transferred to steel where it spontaneously ferments and rests on its lees for a year.  This extended lees aging increases mouthfeel and texture, resulting in delightfully lush fruit and minerality that seemingly leaps from the glass. 

Elegant but not lean, it’s a wonderful glass of Chablis with savory herbal nose with anise and saline notes, very pretty and complete with direct fruit and fresh, mouthwatering acidity.   Says Vincent:  “I am striving for a more ‘normal’ level of acidity that is still the Chablis signature but is balanced with fruit ripeness and texture.”

90 points, Decanter: From older vines, Vincent’s Chablis reveals a complex nose with plenty of citruses (kumquat and fresh lemon), minerals, and a touch of smoke. The mouth is creamy with nice acidity, offering a lovely finish combining more citrus and more mineral.

 

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