Louis Michel & Fils Chablis Vaudesir 2016

Wine Advocate 93 points - Notes of Meyer lemon, oystershell, crisp pear and subtle reduction introduce the 2016 Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir, a medium to full-bodied, pure and structured wine with serious concentration and chewy extract that compensates for what it lacks in acidic cut. It’s the most ample and giving of the three grand cru bottlings in the Louis Michel cellar this year, but it remains quite classic in profile..August/2018

James Suckling 93 points - 100% on the north-facing side. A fresher wine from this warm Grand Cru site. Very attractive gently reductive nectarines and mangoes. Sweetly perfumed and full of energy. Mouthwatering. The palate has a very powerful, very composed and concentrated core of exotic fruits. Succulent. A joyride! Drink now..August/2018

Decanter 92 points - The Vaudesir is the ripest and most giving of the three grand cru bottlings in the range this year, offering up an expressive bouquet of peach, preserved lemon and flowers. The wine is textural, full-bodied and concentrated, with notable extract buttressed by ripe but succulent acids that evoke the wines of the 2015 vintage..October/2017

Today, Guillaume Michel presides over this important 22-hectare estate, which as long been the reference for tank-fermented and matured Chablis, a style that the Michel family did much to popularize in the 1980s. Intense and tensile wines are the calling card here, pure and unadorned by style and consistently high in quality. Indeed, I sometimes think that Louis Michel is the most underrated of Chablis’s great domaines. Certainly, prices remain very reasonable. As usual, certain cuvees stand out-at the premier cru level, the old vine Butteaux, the Fourchaume (from Vaulorent) and the Sechet, Montee de Tonnerre having taken a beating in recent vintages-but the overall standard, even for the lower appellations, is regular and high. They come warmly recommended. - William Kelley, 31st Aug 2018, 238, The Wine Advocate