Hi, my name is Peter, and I have a Chardonnay problem. 

It’s mostly a mineral-driven, barely-to-no-oak Chardonnay problem, but I’m a fan of a well-made bottle from just about anywhere. This doesn’t extend to Champagne, however, where I prefer Pinot Noir and Meunier to Chardonnay. But that’s a subject for another time. 

The prices of Chardonnay from Burgundy have been on the rise and the fifteen-year stretch of horrific vintages hasn’t helped. So, when the store is offered any of it at all, I put a lot of thought into not if, but how much we should get because there’s no guarantee we’ll get a similar amount next year. A bottle in the hand, so to speak. I leaned a bit heavier in Chablis rather than other parts of Burgundy because the price-to-quality value is better and most of the top wines live under $150, instead of starting there like in the Cote de Beaune. Chablis was the “affordable” option, so I bought a lot. Too much, really. 

Then 2024 happened. In early May, catastrophic hail and rain ravaged the vineyards in Chablis. It’s extremely likely we won’t see much, if any, wine from the vintage. We can probably kiss the affordable part of Chablis goodbye as we wait to see how much of the 2023 vintage is released and how much is held for sale to stretch cash until the 2025 crop is in the books. And let’s not forget how tiny the 2021 crop was, so it’s not like there’s a lot of extra wine lying about. 

After all that, seems like I planned ahead! Not really, but I’m trying to cheer myself up in the face of losing an entire vintage of Chablis. If you’re having anxiety attacks over this (a bougie first-world problem, I know) I thought I’d open the books on our inventory to help comfort you. Before someone asks, no – I haven’t seen Dauvissat or Raveneau allocations yet (they’re sort of the Pappy Van Winkle of Chablis…but Pappy is much cheaper).