Chablis for sommelier exams: what to know at each level

The short answer: for the Introductory exam, know where Chablis is, its grape, its soil and its four quality levels. For Certified, add its neighbours and learn to spot it blind. For Advanced, name all seven Grand Crus and the main Premier Crus, with producers. For the Master Sommelier Diploma, know the smaller sites, the wines behind them and thirty years of vintages.

That ladder follows the Court of Master Sommeliers' own examination syllabus for Burgundy, which asks for more depth at every step. Chablis is a good region to learn this way, because it is small and logical. Here it is, level by level.

Chablis in one minute

• Where: the Yonne department in northern Burgundy, around the town of Chablis and the small Serein river, well apart from the Côte d'Or.
• Grape: Chardonnay, and nothing else. Chablis is always white.
• Climate: cool and continental, with cold winters and a real risk of spring frost.
• Soils: Kimmeridgian marl and limestone, full of tiny fossil oyster shells (Exogyra virgula), under Chablis, Premier Cru and Grand Cru. The younger Portlandian limestone, higher up on the plateaus, is mainly Petit Chablis.
• Style: dry, with high acidity, green apple and lemon, and a chalky, stony edge. Most is made without new oak; some top wines spend time in older barrels.

Introductory: the foundations

The Introductory syllabus asks for Burgundy's climate, districts, grapes and soils, and for the district and wines of Chablis with their quality levels. For Chablis, that means:

• The four appellations, from the bottom up: Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru, Chablis Grand Cru.
• One grape, one colour: Chardonnay, white only.
• Why it tastes the way it does: cool climate plus Kimmeridgian soil gives lean, high-acid Chardonnay with a mineral edge.
• The classic pairing: oysters and shellfish.

If Burgundy as a whole is new to you, start with my Burgundy guide for the Level 1 exam.

Certified: the neighbours and the glass

At Certified, the syllabus adds Burgundy's smaller districts by name, and two of them sit right next to Chablis in the Yonne:

• Saint-Bris: a white wine from Sauvignon Blanc, which surprises people who think Burgundy is only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
• Irancy: a red, mostly Pinot Noir.
• Classic vintages: the syllabus asks for these too. For Chablis, frost and hail years matter as much as warm ones.

The Certified exam also has a blind tasting of two wines, and the Court's Classic Grape Markers list Chablis as one of the classic origins for Chardonnay. The markers to learn: pale straw with green highlights; green apple, lemon and a chalky, seashell minerality; medium body, very dry, with medium-plus to high acidity; little or no oak in traditional examples.

Advanced: every Grand Cru, the main Premier Crus, the producers

The Advanced syllabus asks for the Grand Cru and Premier Cru wines of the principal appellations, the specific climatic influences, the character of the wines, vintages, and the principal producers and sites.

• The seven Grand Crus: Blanchot, Bougros, Les Clos, Grenouilles, Les Preuses, Valmur and Vaudésir. They share one hillside on the right bank of the Serein, just above the town, and one appellation: Chablis Grand Cru, with the climat named on the label.
• La Moutonne: a monopole of Domaine Long-Depaquit, lying mostly in Vaudésir with a strip in Les Preuses. It is sold as Chablis Grand Cru but is not an eighth Grand Cru climat. Know it, because on a wine list it looks like one.
• Premier Crus, by bank: on the right bank, near the Grand Crus, Fourchaume, Montée de Tonnerre and Mont de Milieu; on the left bank, Vaillons, Montmains and Côte de Léchet.
• The climatic influence that matters most: frost. A cold night in spring can destroy the young buds, so growers fight it with heaters in the rows and with sprinklers that coat the buds in a protective layer of ice.

Master Sommelier: the fine print

For the Diploma, the syllabus asks you to tell lieux-dits from Premier Crus, to know noted Clos sites, to link producers to specific wines and sites, and to know the main vintages and off-vintages of the last thirty years, plus the latest developments. For Chablis:

• Climats inside climats: many Premier Cru names cover smaller climats that can also appear on a label. Know which smaller name belongs to which Premier Cru, and which producers bottle it.
• Clos sites, such as Clos des Hospices in Les Clos.
• Thirty years of vintages, with the frost years, the hail years and the very warm years, and what each did to the style.
• What is changing: follow the region's trade body, the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne's Chablis site, for new rules and research.

How I would study Chablis

• Draw the map from memory: the Serein, the town, the Grand Cru hillside on the right bank, and the Premier Crus on both banks.
• Taste up the ladder: Petit Chablis, Chablis, a Premier Cru and a Grand Cru side by side, from one producer if you can. The step up in depth and length teaches more than any book.
• Learn the Grand Crus as a sentence: B, B, C, G, P, V, V. Blanchot, Bougros, (Les) Clos, Grenouilles, Preuses, Valmur, Vaudésir. Say it out loud until it is automatic.
• Quiz yourself daily. SOMM DIGI AI has 3,000+ exam-prep questions and will quiz you on Chablis, or any region you choose.

Quick quiz: Chablis

Next: Burgundy's sparkling wine, Crémant de Bourgogne, and how I prepared for the Advanced Sommelier exam.

Questions people ask