Is Chablis The Perfect Wine for January?

I say yes! Here’s your intro to the wine & region!

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I realize that January is a tough time in the world of alcohol. So many folks are cutting back or going dry –  just plain satiated after the decadent holidays. This year was my first taste of the holidays as a “civilian” after years of working full time in the hospitality industry. So all of a sudden I get it. Even though my socializing and imbibing was pretty tame (aka lame, haha) compared to many, I was just about done with all of it by New Year’s Eve! 

Truthfully, I have never been a huge fan of December 31st. Even when you are simply cooking a meal at home some amount of pressure ensues…thoughts like…there must be enough specialness to the dish/the bottle/the moment (after all it is the eve of a new year!). And this brings me to my point: give me the ordinary days (the January days) when a special bottle or dish feels like a true gift. Or when a somewhat ordinary bottle or dish hits an unexpected high note! 

I had just such a moment on the eve of New Year’s Eve (December 30th, to be clear). I had spent most of the afternoon taking down our very sad and scarily dry Christmas tree, and I had honestly not put much thought into dinner. Thankfully I had some sweet potatoes hanging around for just such an occasion, the garden had a last burst of broccolini to harvest, and I am also lucky enough to live less than a mile from a seafood market (shoutout to Crosby’s!). So within a couple of hours I had roasted sweet potatoes, broccolini, and a dozen dry pack scallops (yes, you want DRY PACK scallops!). I also had a bottle of Chablis I stumbled upon at one of our great local bottle shops here in Charleston (Graft) that I was eager to try – Chateau de Beru “Terroirs de Beru” from the mother-daughter team – Laurence and Athénaïs. 

More on this specific bottle in a second, but if you are a newbie to the wine world or have preconceived ideas about Chablis let’s get the facts straight. 

Simply put, Chablis is a region in northeastern France that is famed for white wine made from Chardonnay. More specifically, it is the most northerly subregion of the larger Burgundy region (birthplace of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir). (Click here for a great map of Burgundy.)

Sadly, many folks still have a knee-jerk reaction against Chablis most likely stemming from cheap California jug wines that bear the Chablis name on their label as a reference to what I am not sure (some 1970s notion of everything French being exotic and attractive?). Unbelievably these jugs labeled “Chablis” still exist and are weird white blends from who knows where!

Back to my point…Chablis is a magical place with a long history. Over a million years ago a shallow sea covered this part of France and left a bedrock of limestone (basically fossilized sea life) that happens to create outstanding examples of Chardonnay.

The Famed Limestone of Chablis

In addition to this famed soil, there is also the chilly climate. The region is in fact at the northerly limits of grape growing. This can be dicey in some years, but when the weather cooperates it leads to Chardonnay with mouthwatering acidity.

This is just what I am looking for in wine pairings — a wine that keeps you coming back for more! But you know what else I am looking for? History! I love wine that has a rich story behind it, and Chablis has plenty. Its wine history goes back to at least Roman times, and some of the earliest documented history dates to 1114 when a Cistercian abbey was formed in the area.

The Burgundy region as a whole owes much to the monasteries that cataloged many of the best sites for grapes. This system has led to a ranking of sites that is still important today. In Chablis the top tier is Grand Cru and then Premier Cru and then “basic” Chablis and then Petit Chablis. But rest assured there is deliciousness to be found at all levels. And honestly there are a variety of price points at all levels. 

The bottle of Beru that I picked up was their “entry level” bottling, which sounds pejorative, but basically just means it is wine made from a variety of their sites rather than a specific site. But all the Beru wines are top notch quality. They use organic and biodynamic farming practices AND minimal sulfur dioxide in the winemaking process. This “Terroirs de Beru” does not see any oak (only stainless steel), but some of their site specific bottlings do spend some time aging in older oak barrels. 

All of this care resulted in a bottle of wine that positively sang from the moment I opened it! It was a shimmery pale gold in the glass (as you can see in the above picture) and smelled of just ripe golden apples, pears, a touch of chamomile tea, and crushed rocks/wet stone. On the palate there was all of this and a lovely unctuous quality (viscous mouthfeel) that positively seduced me! It was of course fantastic with cheese before dinner and then went beautifully with the butter basted scallops and veggies. If I am being honest this entire meal outshone our New Year’s Eve dinner – thanks to the wine but also just thanks to the “somewhat ordinary night” vibe.

I cannot recommend the Beru wines highly enough, and last I checked they still had  few on the shelf at Graft. At $56 a bottle this is not an inexpensive wine, but I promise it will give a major upgrade to a January night. 

If you are looking for Chablis in your own neck of the woods, I would advise going to a smaller bottle shop and chatting with the folks there. There will most likely be Chablis on the shelves at bigger, chain stores, but I fear it will be a bit more generic. One that is  easier to find but still a high quality producer is Brocard, and they have bottlings that start in the $20s retail. Some other favorite smaller producers of mine would be Patrick Piuze, Christophe et Fils, and Domaine de L’Enclos. 

For Chablis pairings, I would of course recommend any and all seafood but also roasted chicken, pork, and so many vegetarian dishes! Cheers to all the ordinary nights transformed by a great bottle of wine and home cooked meal!