Renè & Vincent Dauvissat cellar

visit at Dauvissat cellar

We managed to get an appointment at Rene & Vincent Dauvissat by our friend importer of wine.
This winery is in the centre of Chablis just 2 minute walk from Domaine Raveneau; 
we were greeted by the daughter of Vincent which at first glance didn't
 believe we had an appointment, but in a minute she realize we were booked as soon as we told the name of the Italian importer.
So she called Vincent, this skinny fit man lead us to his barrel cellar, an underground space full of 228l barrel and of course some Feuillette barrel 132l.
The cave is full of mould on the wall and very old, my mind thought the bacteria and the ambient yeast present in that cellar make this wine quite special.
For me every time i drunk one of his bottle it was always an incredible experience, these wines with Raveneau wines with some age become incredible, fascinating details and full of expression.
To me Dauvissat are the perfect example of the terroir of Chablis, we tasted the vintage 2013 which was a hot one and by the press and talking with the producer they all talk about the difficult on acidity but generosity and fattiness it is the style; however for Vincent is quite a classic vintage.

With him i tasted from Petit Chablis, Sechet premier cru which is a Lieux dit in Vaillons, Foret premier cru a Lieux dit in Montmains and Vaillons 1er cru:
this wine weren't exotic at all but tight and minerally with a green apple nose. Sechet shows more dimension and complexity, Foret was full of energy but very nervous was fighting with my gum/ teeth; they have an attitude as 2011 from my memory. 
After that we tasted grand cru Les Clos a salty mineral wine with body and extra dimension from the 1er cru site, last bottle was a Les Preuses bit more feminine than Le Clos but complex and minerally but less sapidity and body.
After we talked a bit with my poor french, and very lucky my italian sim card worked in the cellar so I had access to google translate to create more sense of my questions, we talked extensively about ambient yeast or cultivated use of yeast and he suddenly opened a 2002 La Foret.

This was a very good surprise, when you smell a 13 years old Chablis you feel in heaven.. then if it is a Dauvissat one and opened by Vincent for a minute i felt the happiest person in the world, Foret which means forest is small parcel in Montmains with a small forest nearby, 02 was  deeper in color but with green shade on the rim showing is youthful nose here was a bit open, yellow skin apple, apple juice, citrus skin, mushroom, crust hard cheese and definitely depth and complexity with honey and dry flower, palate great length.

Back to the yeast Dauvissat told me he's using it almost always with wild one but some vintage due to the crazy cold temperature in Chablis he needs to inoculate at the beginning of the fermentation.
This was a 45 minute visit and was quite remarkable for my personal memory.




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