Tasted in Chablis with Romain Collet, 15 January 2016.
Domaine Jean Collet & Fils
15 avenue de la Liberté
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 42 11 93
www.domaine-collet.fr
Romain on 2015:
“When the storm hit, it was a very noisy night/morning – and it didn’t look good next day in the vines. Fortunately everything was ready, we doubled the manual picking team from 20 to 40. I much preferred to attack early than wait – we lost almost 30%. I’m happy with what we did.”
Romain on 2014:
We had almost same yields as 2015, not really made the usual yields since 2011. But nice structure and acidity in the wines.
Romain on prices:
A price increase was made here for the 2013s but they will also do so for the 2014s – but less – about 2-3%.
The wines…
Always a very good, steady quality here.
2014 Chablis
Assembly of about 10 hectares.
Fresh, bright, green/lime fruit. A certain roundness but a fine line of acidity that carries you towards the finish. A bright, quite pretty and certainly tasty finish. Nice.
2014 Chablis Vieilles Vignes
A single parcel of about 1.5 hectares planted in Milly in 1932.
Equally fresh but clarity indeed purity to the nose. A little wider, more layered delivery of flavour, a suggestion of florality in the mouth. Really fine.
1.20 ha also in Villy. Was an old woodland where truffles were once found. ‘AB’ label since 2015.
Much brighter, direct, lime fruit, faint herb too – inviting aroma. Wide fresh and with very nice dimension of flavour – a more obvious minerality than the VV also with some floral impression in the mid-palate. Lovely mouth-watering finish – Very yum!
2014 Chablis 1er Montmains
Like the previous wines only stainless-steel elevage here. From 4 parcels amounting to 5 hectares.
A width of aroma if less depth. Here with a certain faint reductive/mineral impression. A nice agrume impression, certainly with a twist of lime in there too – but this is really tasty – the sort of wine that really makes you want to take another sip. Very tasty again with an attractive accent of salinity in the finishing flavour.
Still on lees in tank. 0.72 ha one parcel in bio since 2008. Planted in 1972.
Big, bright, mineral nose of fine clarity and energy. A little more direct and penetrating intensity – lip-smacking but with a slowly growing (saving!) coating of extract. Really an exciting wine. Beautiful finishing flavour – the best yet!
2014 Chablis 1er Le Forêt
Bought in 2005, replanted in 2008, 0.92 hectares. Second vintage separated, and elevage in some concrete tanks and 10% wood – also viticulture Bio.
Like all the wines there is freshness, but here it’s a more agrume, almost vibrant nose. Rounder in the mouth, less dynamic than the nose suggests. There’s a nicely layered and mouth-watering delivery of flavour, but tasty as this si (maybe the vine age) I find less excitement today vs that last couple of wines…
2014 Chablis 1er Vaillons
A big cuvée, of parcels accounting to 9 hectares; epinottes, minot, encieres, chatains, en Vaillons. 5% in barrel thee rest in tank – after malo on part goes into older barrels.
Fresh but discreetly reduced nose. Also a little soft, but with beautiful mouth-watering flavour escaping from the gums and teeth – very attractive with a mandarin style fruit toward the finish. Very attractive wine!
2014 Chablis 1er Le Sécher
0.25 hectares a cuvée here since 2008. Currently assembled in tank. 30% new wood here.
A more obvious wood sweetness here – round but a with a good freshness too. Despite the nose there’s a fine purity and clarity of flavour that only slowly becomes more wood-inflected. This needs a little time, for my palate, but the impression is very positive – lots to enjoy already.
2014 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
Just one parcel, 0.32 hectares with a manual harvest as there’s a lot of millerandes here. 100% demi-muids (600 litres) for 8-9 months then in tank to finish
A very nice, fresh, saline nose. Just a little richness but also a lot of fine silk to this mineral wine. It’s less exuberant than some but there is a fine complexity here. Really excelling today in the finish. Lovely wine.
2 parcels – one of 0.25 plus another of 1.80 in Les Chapots. ‘The smaller brings a richness, the other a colder area brings the tension and vivacity.’ Vinified separately and then blended before bottling. All in barrel with 5% new.
A large, round, partly floral, partly agrume nose – no apparent oak. Round a little richness, a lot of salinity. Quite large-scaled, a slow-burn type of wine that has balance and keeps talking to you on a low volume – I really like the character of this! Nice finish too.
2014 Chablis Le Clos
One parcel of 0.16 hectares. First vintage 2013 now on fermage.
Big and bright with a clarion of a top note – just a little pinches in the width – maybe because it was bottled yesterday. Very mineral – the most so far, lots of layers to the flavour delivery. Lots of complexity too. Very nice!
A sample from tank – probably to be bottled at the end of February.
More open, wider nose of complex fresh fruit. A faint gas, but lovely texture is slowly uncovered here – bubbling complexity, of layers and really super-tasty. Really very fine flavour, interest and simply delicious joy. Bravo!