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| "Jean-Claude Bessin and his son Romain produce some of the finest wines in Chablis at this 12-hectare Domaine in La Chapelle Vaupelteigne."
William Kelley, Wine Advocate |
| | | | "As I've written before, this estate really deserves to be talked about more, as it belongs among Chablis's top half-dozen Domaines ....
Jean-Claude Bessin officially retired last year, handing over the reins to his son, Romain, and what was formerly Domaine Jean-Claude Bessin was rechristened Domaine Bessin-Tremblay — Romain's mother, source of many of the Domaine's vineyards, being a Tremblay.
The name may have changed, but quality at this 12-hectare Domaine in La Chapelle Vaupelteigne remains just as impressive. Jean-Claude Bessin - as he puts it - loves the acidity and tension of Chablis on the condition that it's paired with substance and flesh, a philosophy that's admirably translated into practice in the form of wines with cut and concentration, texture, and definition. Harvesting by hand, followed by fermentation and élevage in neutral wood and tank on the lees for as many as 18 months, is the method by which they are produced.
The resulting wines offer everything one's looking for in great Chablis.
Farming and winemaking are entirely compliant with organic certification and have been for years .... Cropped at a modest 20 hectoliters per hectare, due to low yields, several of the Domaine's smaller bottlings weren't produced this year. William Kelley, Wine Advocate |
| | | ▪ "There's no [old-vine] Pièce au Comte this year, so everything went into the 2021 Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume, an attractive wine that unwinds int he glass with aromas of honeycomb, white flowers, oyster shell, orange blossom, and struck match. Medium- to full-bodied, bright and satiny, it's pure and precise, with racy acids and a delicately honeyed finish. While it's still a touch shut down after its recent bottling, it will appeal to Chablis purists." William Kelley, Wine Advocate
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| ▪ "The 2021 Fourchaume from Romain Bessin has a bit extra mid-palate dimension from the addition of the old vines into the regular bottling this year. This is really an excellent wine, with the bouquet delivering scents of pear, lemon, that gently woodsy touch of Fourchaume, wet stone minerality, a touch of anise, dried flowers, and a gently smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and very elegant in profile, with a lovely core of fruit, good soil undertow, bright acids and a long, focused and complex finish of exquisite balance. This too will be quite accessible out of the blocks, but I might be inclined to tuck it away in the cellar for a few years and let its secondary layers of complexity emerge." John Gilman, View From The Cellar
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| | | | ▪ "The 2021 Chablis Grand Cru Valmur is a taut, chiseled wine, unfurling to reveal aromas of citrus zest, crisp green apple, iodine, white flowers and freshly baked bread. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's bright and racy and concludes with a penetratingly saline finish. As ever, it's one of the best Chablis of the vintage." William Kelley, Wine Advocate
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| ▪ "The 2021 Valmur chez Bessin is also an excellent wine in the making. The bouquet is deep, pure and classic Valmur in its constellation of apple, pear, lemon, beeswax, complex, chalky soil tones, dried flowers and a touch of orange peel in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a superb core of fruit, good acids and mineral drive and a long, seamlessly balanced and vibrant finish. This too seems likely to shares the potential for relatively early drinking, as is the case for the premier crus here, but there are more layers of complexity to unfold in the Valmur with bottle age that I would try to not touch a bottle for at least four or five years." John Gilman, View From The Cellar
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