Day 4: Chablis

An early start saw us regretably leaving the Cote D'Or and heading north to Chablis which is closer to Champagne than it is to the rest of Burgundy. The town of Chablis is ancient and picturesque, surrounded by vineyards with the steep hillside of the Grand Crus to the East looking imperiously down towards the town. First stop was the slope of the Grand Crus which is topped with a lovely wood popular with walkers. Here we saw one of the famous vineyards of Chablis being tended to by an old guy with a decrepit looking plough dragged up the steep slope by a tired looking horse - it was an old fashioned idylic rural sight on one of the most expensive plots of land in Burgundy. We were lucky enough to be granted a visit to Domaine Droin, one of the most respected and highly sought-after producers in Chablis. The youthful Benoit Droin was to be our guide through the wines. The tasting was entirely of 2006 barrel samples, no older vintages available especially from 2005 as Benoit had sold them all. We kept asking though, just in case he had some secret stock elsewhere. All of the wines were very good, though they were showing some tank character it was posiible to see through this and recognise the quality of the fruit. Benoit was very proud of his Premier Cru Montmains which he described as "More Cote D'Or than Chablis" and it was indeed very rich for a Chablis with 45% being aged in oak. The Grand Crus were all stunning, for me the Vaudesir was showing the best being more nutty yet remaining floral and pretty at the same time. I was really impressed with all of Benoit's wines, from the cheaper Petit Chablis, to his top Grand Cru Le Clos, which sees 50% oak ageing, 10% of which is new. The 2006 vintage continued to impress, these are all gorgeous wines that are absolute must-haves for any Chablis fan.

 

If Domaine Droin's Chablis are traditional, with the wines being released quite young and little use of oak and only in the Grand Crus, the next visit was the exact opposite. Domaine Duplessis believe that Chablis is capable of making wines that are able to cope with extended oak ageing and lengthy bottle ageing. Duplessis generally release their wines one to two years after everyone else in the town. Meanwhile the wines have spent that time in a combination of tank, barrel and bottle. I found the 2006 tank samples to be the hardest wines of the entire trip to analyse and appreciate, they were very tight and lacked fruit. The 2005's and 2004's were again not showing as much fruit as you'd expect for such a great Domaine. It wasn't until we were shown some older bottles that it all started to make sense. The 2003 Montmains was lovely with lots of buttery oak and showing more Burgundy characters than Chablis, but it was the even older Chablis that were showing the best. Generally the wines were very big for Chablis with lots of oak but with more than enough fruit to cope, we went through several older vintages finishing with the truly wonderful 1989 Premier Cru Montée de Tonerre which was packed with so much flavour it was unlike any Chablis I have had before - nuts, caramel, honey, minerals, peaches,cranberries and smoke all packed into a wine that still tasted youthful - a very special wine! Duplessis' wines were a revelation and it was great to see a producer sticking to what they believe in and making wines that are not the most commercial-minded but are very, very good.

 

The final stop was to a small and little-known producer in Chablis calles Domaine Vrignaud where we met Guillaume Vrignaud who showed us around his immaculate property and presented his classic steely and flinty wines which were a return to the more expected style of Chablis. A nice tasting and a very pleasant brief rest in the sun before hitting the road for the tip to Paris and the return to Scotland, full of great food and even greater wines.

 

Fin.