Why you shouldn’t overlook Petit Chablis

This is Domaine Vincent Dauvissat under another name. And it's atypical in that it will have spent a little time in oak. The nose is rounded, firm and stony, while on the palate there is weight and texture with youthful potential. I was also able to taste the 2015 vintage, from a warmer year, and it had evolved beautifully, with some stony weight and mouthfeel. A lovely drink, but possibly atypical Petit Chablis.

Petit Chablis can be a pale imitation of the 'real' thing, but not in this case. From vines planted on Portlandian bedrock, the crisp acidity of the 2017 vintage shows through. This is a fine, elegant Petit Chablis with impressive depth, complexity and character. The nose is highly expressive for Petit Chablis, with the palate exhibiting great purity and zesty notes of lemon and lime. The wine finishes with savoury characters derived from 8-10 months ageing in small stainless steel tanks. I wish more Petit Chablis had this wine's depth.

Firm youthful and stony on the nose, with hints of maturity on the palate and some appealing leesy notes. An underlying richness is joined by some attractive evolution. An old family estate, Benoit now makes the wine and his son Louis is the 16th generation.

A nicely rounded nose with a hint of maturity. On the palate the wine is beginning to develop some elegant nutty notes, with firm, balancing acidity. Denis Pommier made his first vintage in 1994 when he inherited five hectares from his great-aunt.

Samuel Billaud has been making his own wine since 2009, and when his uncle Bernard retired and sold Billaud-Simon to Faiveley in 2014, he acquired more family vineyards. Samuel has an elegant touch in his winemaking, and his Petit Chablis vineyards are on the plateau above the grands crus. This has firm mineral fruit on both nose and palate, with good depth and elegant ripeness.

A fine example of a more mature Petit Chablis, illustrating how well it can age. It's quite rounded, with leesy fruit on the nose and a touch of colour. The palate is rounded and elegant, with hints of gunflint and an elegant note of maturity on the finish. Drinking beautifully.

One of several Dauvissats in Chablis, this is a relatively new estate based in Beine, with its first vintage in 1989. This is classic Petit Chablis. A light, delicate stony nose and on the palate, firm fresh fruit, with good acidity. A tight-knit crisp finish.

Light colour. A firm nose, dry and closed, while the palate is richer than you might anticipate from the nose, quite textured and rounded with stony fruit and some length on the finish. This comes from the cooperative’s organic vineyards, four plots totalling 3.96 hectares. I found it had more weight and depth than their basic Petit Chablis.

From one of the largest estates of Chablis, and now run by the next generation, Julien Brocard. It has an elegant, fragrant nose with a fresh and elegant palate showing good acidity and a firm, mineral finish.

From of the leading wine families of Maligny, this is quite rounded on the nose, and on the palate slightly softer than some of the others, and therefore possibly more typical of the vintage. Good texture on the palate with a little weight.

This wine is what the now-retired owner of the estate, Lynne Marchive, would describe as intégriste, fundamentalist and very pure, with a firm, closed nose. On the palate it is fresh and elegant, almost lemony, with a delicate finish.

From one of the several Moreau estates – Louis is the cousin of Fabien, and there is no longer any connection with J Moreau & Fils. This is fresh, light and lemony on the nose, and elegant and stony on the palate, with a fresh finish.

A firm, dry, flinty nose with elegantly stony fruit on the palate. There's no great depth but it's elegant and fresh. Frederic Prain, one of the rare outsiders in Chablis – he came from as far away as Paris – describes himself as the EasyJet of Chablis. He wants his wine to be accessible.