Visiting Domaine Gérard Tremblay in Chablis
It is hard to come back from Chablis. After a week vacationing in this paradise-like northern corner of Burgundy, I think I have fallen in love for ever. Cinnamon and I had a great time there cooking with the local ingredients, dining at wonderful local restaurants, hiking in the vineyards, and of course, visiting a few producers. One of the catalysts for this trip was a bottle of 2014 Domaine Gérard Tremblay Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir that we drank on Christmas eve from the case that we bought several years ago. Paired with our local Dungeness crab, it beguiled us, and the empty ended up going on our wall of fame.
We were lucky enough to get an appointment with Vincent Tremblay who runs this 91-acre estate headquartered in Poinchy at the north point of the town of Chablis with his sister Eleonore. Almost a full third of this great estate is Premier Cru, and 80% of the production is exported. Due to our direct importation of these wines, the prices are incredible compared to the superlative quality.
This estate works mostly with stainless steel fermentation, and the style is exceptionally clean and focused. Vincent sometimes gets a hard time from the rest of his family for his daring work in the vineyard, but it always seems to pay off. In the 2021 vintage, which was famous for its almost non-existent crop because of spring frost, he only lost 25%. He accomplished this by using a cutting-edge, low-impact treatment on the vineyard called PEL 101. He hates polluting by burning oil smudge pots in the vineyard for frost protection, and is happy to give up this dirty, less-effective method.
While we were there, we tasted the whole range, finishing with an incredible bottle of 1985 Domaine Gérard Tremblay Chablis 1er Cru "Côte de Léchet.” We have been putting his wines in our own cellar since the 2008 vintage, and I knew that they aged well… But this was incredible! The bright golden color, the caramel-framed nose, the creamy yet aqueux mid-palate and the vibrant, mineral, clean back end made it hard to believe that this wine is about to have its 40th birthday! I am proud to say that we have two vintages of this in stock now, the focused and refreshing 2019 Domaine Gérard Tremblay Chablis 1er Cru "Côte de Léchet" $29.99, and the ripe and exotic 2020 Domaine Gérard Tremblay Chablis 1er Cru "Côte de Léchet" $29.99. This is one of the first Premier Cru sites that one sees when coming into Chablis from the larger city of Auxerois, on the cooler left side of the river Serein. The 2019 is a great cellar candidate as well as drinking well now!
