2024 Famille Savary, Petit Chablis, White Burgundy, France.
The latest Francine et Olivier Savary made Petit Chablis is slightly less exciting versus the previous vintage, but still a solid effort with pithy grapefruit, lime, green apple and tart unripe peach fruits leading the way on the steely fresh palate, along with hints of oyster shell, verbena and sea shore. Set on clay and limestone soils the Savary Petit Chablis, as mentioned before, is 100% Chardonnay, and is from vines planted between 1983 and 2010, that sees a fermentation, both primary and malolactic conversion in exclusively temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks with fine lees aging. This pale straw gold Petit Chablis is vibrant and zesty with a medium body and crisp in detail, making it mouthwatering and best with lighter cuisine. The appellation Petit Chablis represents close to 20% of all Chablis production, not insignificant, these days and the top producers in the region turn out some absolutely delicious examples, and while maybe not on the most coveted of Kimmeridgian plots in Chablis, are wines capable of turning heads. The Savary Old Vine Chablis, is one of my all time favorite go to wines, that I used call a “Baby Raveneau” and when you taste it you’ll most likely understand why. It is vigorous and mineral rich, but best of all it is an affordable Chablis option, especially with the prices of many of the top wines being what they are these days! When Kermit Lynch introduced Savary to the States back in 2006 or so, I was in awe of just how good a Chablis in this price class could be and I’ve been a huge fan ever since, and legend has it, that old man Raveneau himself and Kermit Lynch, later, had a hand in getting the Savary’s to bottle their own wine. These days Petit Chablis is seeing a rise in fortunes and are getting some attention, and importer, Kermit Lynch has a nice selection of them in his portfolio, all of which, like this Savary, are worth chasing down.
Petit Chablis, as explained in my prior reviews of this wine, is an appellation created in 1944 for dry white wines made from Chardonnay in Chablis and the surrounding communes. Interestingly the terroirs of the Petit Chablis appellation, on both sides of the Serein valley are located on the higher slopes or the beginnings of the plateau, it forms one of the rings of the Chablis area, with soils dating from the Tithonian age, which is much younger that the more famous Kimmeridgian era in the Premier Cru, Grand Cru and even some of village AC areas.. They are made up of hard, brown limestone, or sometimes silty, sandy soils, in general at an elevation of between 230 and 280 meters, with varied orientation. Famille Savary, based In Maligny, a village well-poised between Paris and Dijon, just north of Chablis, Olivier Savary and his wife, Francine, have been vignerons or growers since 1984, even though as Kermit Lynch notes, many generations of Savary’s family members were vignerons. As Kermit nows tells it, Olivier Savary initially sold off the majority of his production in bulk to a négociant, but was after time emboldened by their years of combined experience and family history of winemaking, Francine and Olivier finally found their wings and began bottling under their own label. In 1990, Olivier’s longtime friend and Chablis legend Jean-Marie Raveneau introduced Olivier to Kermit, who saw the potential and helped push the brand in the United States to great success. Today, Francine and Olivier are joined by their sons, Maxime and Mathieu, in the family business and the future looks bright for this once under the radar producer. Originally they offered only three different cuvées in the States, the Premier Cru Fourchaume, a straight Chablis AC and their mentioned Selection Vieilles Vignes (old vines), but now a Vaillons Premier Cru, this Petit Chablis and a rare Bourgogne Epineuil (Chablis) Rouge.
($32 Est.) 88 Points, grapelive