J. Moreau & Fils Petit Chablis

Back in 1814 a young Frenchman by the name of Jean-Joseph Moreau married a local winemaker’s daughter and inherited the oldest Chablis house in France. With a new found love for wine (and we assume his new wife too!) he accelerated the business’ growth to become one of the region’s top producers.

If you’re new to the world of Chablis (“shah-blee”) then this is a great place to start! Chablis is an area in the north-west of Burgundy, France, that’s famous for producing Chardonnays of little to no use of oak.

The area produces wines split into four different appellations (levels of quality, typically depending on the location of the vineyards) – Petit Chablis, Chablis, Premier Cru and Grand Cru. One useful thing to know is typically Grand Cru does use oak, the others do not.

This is J.Moreau & Fil’s Petit Chablis label – called Les Petits Deurz named after small Celtic statuettes still dotted around some of the Chablis vineyards.

Scoring 94/100 with Master of Wine Bob Campbell for The Real Review who said “Moderately intense Chablis with chalk, oyster shell, citrus/lemon and green apple flavours. Deliciously mouth-watering acidity. A perfect match for freshly-shucked oysters garnished with a squeeze of lime.”

Looking for an ideal food and wine pairing with Chablis? It’s got to to be shellfish and especially good old New Zealand oysters! The soils in Chablis are literally crushed seashells from way back in the Jurassic period!