Botrytized Chablis?

[Robin Garr]

So I opened a 2017 Chablis last night and found it decent drinking but stylistically unexpected: It was a bright gold color with a distinct note of honey riding over ripe apples that carried over in a flavor that was medium-bodied or more and conveyed an impression of sweetness that was probably illusory but hard to ignore. It wasn't a bad wine ... there was stony minerality there and good acidity after the sense of sweetness passed. But it was one odd Chablis, with character that made me think of botrytis. Is that even a thing in Chablis or in the 2017 vintage?

(The wine was Christophe Patrice 2017 Chablis, imported by USA Wine West LLC but apparently hard to find - Wine-Searcher had no U.S. vendors.)

[Robin Garr]

PS: Yeah, I know, we're not in Wine Focus. I put the question out here for discussion but will post a formal TN in Focus later on.

Botrytis happens all the time in Burgundy, but the rot is usually the ignoble grey rot rather than noble rot. Looks like they lucked out and the climate conditions were right for noble rot this time.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

2017 was not a problematic year in terms of harvest time weather. Odd.

I think botrytis (noble) is more common in Macon than Chablis or Cote d'Or- especially in Vire Clesse where Thevenet/Bongran kinbd of make a speciality of it. .
But there are certainly botrytis affected vintages in latter 2 as well.But I don't remember any rot comments re '17.

Gilman's writeup on 2017 Chablis mentions rain for later picked wines, but nothing that sounds like rot producing

i in the third week of August in Chablis as well, which pushed the sugars up towards harvesting levels and growers accelerated their plans for the harvest a bit and started picking in early September. The Raveneau family started picking on September 5th, Didier Seguier at Domaine William Fèvre on the fourth of the month, and Patrick Piuze on September 2nd. The harvest had a bit of rain on the weekend of the 9th and 10th of September in 2017, and though it did not dilute the good sugar levels in the grapes, it seems to have affected the acidity levels in the finished wines, so that there is more cut and structural tension in wines made from grapes harvested before the weekend rain, in comparison to those from vineyards picked after the weekend’s rain. The latter have lovely and quite generous fruit tones and solid expressions of terroir, but not the same mineral drive and classical structures for longer-term aging as is found in wines made from grapes brought in before that rainy weekend in September

Honey and ripe apples sometimes make me think of heat damage. But I know that's a generic complaint anytime a wine is weird, and you may have ruled that out.

I distinctly remember a Macon Thevenet Bongran 1986 while camping in the U.P. of Mich. that was dry but deep with fabulous flavors of botrytis and peach/apricot. I surely wish more wineries worldwide would with intent or accidently make wines like this when faced with the right conditions.

Very interesting. I can't recall having had a Chablis like that but in some older cases I have met a slight honey like undertow but dry. I agree with others that such taste profiles are not uncommon in the Mâconnais. Thévenet, of course, and also rich and slightly sweet "dry" wines from Domaine Michel but these were balanced by bright acidity unlike the Sylvaner on which I have posted elsewhere today.

BTW the Bettane Desseauve 2020 guide just dropped in my letterbox and 2017 is described as a "millésime classique" at several estates, which seems to exclude a specifically vintage effect here.

[Robin Garr]

Honey and ripe apples sometimes make me think of heat damage. But I know that's a generic complaint anytime a wine is weird, and you may have ruled that out.

I can't absolutely rule it out, Rahsaan, but it didn't seem that way to me. Clear gold but absolutely no browning or bronze; aromatic but not a hint of Sherry. Of course, now that you raise the question, I've had wines that showed recent heat damage with exaggerated fruit before the real damage started to show. But these flavors just yelled botrytis to me. A recent purchase from a reliable local shop, but of course they can't guarantee what happened to the wine before it got to them.