The 2023 Chablis 1er Cru La Forest is nothing short of superb in bottle and ranks among the year's most authoritative wines. A pure, marine-inflected opening—iodine, lemon peel and oyster liquor mingled with beeswax and dried apricot—precedes a concentrated yet tensile palate of taut muscularity. Bright acidity and abundant chalky extract lend the wine a bracing, kinetic edge, culminating in an intensely saline, persistent finish. Dauvissat here once again affirms its status as one of the site's greatest interpreters.
96 points, Kristaps Karklins, Wine Advocate (Jan 2026)
Premier cru La Forest from Dauvissat is a wine of lovely richness, concentration and depth. Aromas range from lemon peel to passion fruit and hazelnut, and the silky, fine texture is still substantial enough to impress on the lingering finish. The wine is among the most well-known wines from Dauvissat, as one might expect; the domaine owns nearly 3.5ha spread over thirty small parcels, in soils with a high clay content that brings a slightly exotic edge to the wine.
95 points, Charles Curtis, Decanter (Jun 2025)
A little fuller yellow. Plump white fruit and blossom on the nose. Then the 2023 La Forest explodes on the second half, a tamed sucrosity, with a lovely thread of acidity to keep it going. *Five Stars*
95 points, Jasper Morris, Inside Burgundy (Dec 2025)
The 2023 Chablis “la Forest” from Vincent Dauvissat is an equally stunning wine in the making. The wine is already very complex on both the nose and palate, with the bouquet wafting from the glass in a blend of apple, pear, tangerine, paraffin, a crystalline expression of limestone minerality, citrus zest and a gentle framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, racy and very precise, with great depth of pure fruit, superb mineral drive and grip, great balance and a very long, complex and vibrant finish. The wine will no doubt drink beautifully right out of the blocks, but I would try to keep my hands off of it for at least another half dozen years, just to let its secondary layers of complexity emerge. This is dazzling in quality this year!
94+ points, John Gilman, View From The Cellar (Feb 2025)
This could be from nowhere other than Chablis and while this is aromatically less elegant than the MdT, at present it's more complex with beautiful layering of various white orchard fruit, citrus zest and just shucked oysters. As is virtually always the case with this wine, there is both excellent volume and mid-palate concentration while preserving ample power and minerality that really seem to build on the smoky, long and well-balanced finale. Note however that this is clearly built-to-age and a wine that's going to need at least 5 or so years of keeping first. Very promising. *Outstanding*
94 points, Allen Meadows, Burghound (Oct 2025)
The 2023 Chablis Fôrets 1er Cru competes with the Montée de Tonnerre as Dauvissat's finest Premier. This has the same degree of mineralité and tension on the nose, but it's perhaps a tad more open at the moment. The palate has exquisite balance. The 2023 is just a tiny bit more tropical than the Montée with hints of apricot and white peach. This is very persistent on the finish. It is superb.
93 points, Neal Martin, Vinous (Jun 2025)
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