Have you ever had real Chablis?

vendors. Just as those hawked accessories aren’t authentic, branded, from-the-source products, neither was a lot of the wine that many people believed to be Chablis. It was Chablis in name only. True Chablis hails from the eponymous subregion of Burgundy, France. Chablis is not sickly sweet and is made from 100 percent chardonnay. (There is no such thing as a chablis grape.) It could not be more different from the oaky, buttery, thick-as-syrup chardonnay that comes from warmer New World climates like California.

No, classic Chablis is clean, crisp and dry, an expression of chardonnay that goes perfectly with fresh oysters. It is also great on its own, as a way of arousing the palate with bright acidity, tangy lemon and lime flavors and aromas, and waves of minerality, including the wine style’s signature notes of what is often described as gunflint, metallic, sharp and stony.

Stainless steel tanks are most often used in the fermentation and maturation of Chablis, but some producers employ oak barrels in the process, particularly the Grand Cru and Premier Cru classifications. Even in those cases, though, the resulting wines are nowhere near what New World chardonnays offer. On the other hand, in certain expressions, Chablis can be so clean and crisp, so stylistically different from New World chardonnay that it can fool you into thinking you are tasting a steely, citrusy, mineral-laced sauvignon blanc.

Within the Chablis appellation, which dates to the 1930s, there are four classifications. In terms of prestige (and often price, too) from highest to lowest, they are: Grand Cru, Premier Cru, Chablis and Petit Chablis. A Chablis Grand Cru bottle may carry the name of one of seven Climats (a Burgundian name for top vineyard sites) on its label: Blanchot, Bougros, Grenouilles, Les Clos, Les Preuses, Valmur and Vaudesir. Chablis Premier Cru bottles also may include specific sites on their labels, such as Montee de Tonnerre and Montmains, among more than a dozen others.

The vast majority of Chablis wines — more than 60 percent of all bottles — carry the general “Chablis” classification. Chablis Premier Cru bottles make up only about 12 percent of total Chablis production, and Chablis Grand Cru bottlings represent an even tinier slice of the pie (about 2 percent).

But some of those top Chablis bottlings age well in the bottle for a decade or more. Although they are not exactly cheap, they are also not outrageously expensive, considering that they are among the top offerings of one of the great wine styles of the world. Chablis is worthy of your attention and respect.