Tasted in Chablis with Samuel Billaud, 13 March 2024.
Domaine Samuel Billaud
8 Boulevard Dr Tacussel
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 6 37 52 50 32
www.samuel-billaud.com
More reports with Domaine Samuel Billaud
Samuel on 2023:
“Everyone is happy – though the wines haven’t yet finished their malos. The volumes depended on the sectors – near Chablis there was less volume than further away – but it was still a generous vintage. It reminds me of 2018 – with a fruity base.”
Samuel on 2022:
“22 started with a big frost – again! But the opposing buds were not yet underway so the vines recovered well – helped by a very good flowering. It was about 45 hl/ha on average for me. Wines with a lovely intensity and depth – I can compare them to 2014 and 2017 but with a very early start – like 2003 – but without the grillied, roasted, grapes of that vintage. Still, we managed to keep a cool minerality despite the heat and precocity of the vintage – which I’m very happy with. Right now only 50% of my bottlings have been completed.”
The wines…
A pleasure to taste – as I expect here, a great range of wines with much that is worth a special search
NDTEC corks from Trescases for the GCs, all the rest are DIAM. “I still have deviation with NDTec – the decision is still to be made how I will seal the grand crus in the future:”
50% Auxerois and 50% (north-) Mâconnais.
Hmm – that’s got a very pretty nose – fine citrus and complexity – a lovely invitation. Supple, concentrated but with a line of flavour, growing in intensity, that is both delicious and moreish but also holds concentration too – vibrant finishing, slightly zesty too – that’s a great Bourgogne.
More open, more acidulated fruit in this nose. Larger scale, cooler much more energetic flavour with faintly chalky tannin – no grain. More tension than a Puligny – Great PC!
2022 Chablis Grand Terroirs
Pargues, Grand Ecarts with 80-year-old vines, and Chapelots – roughly equal parts of the three parcels.
A more concentrated, more direct but less voluminous nose. A little extra scale vs the PC – beautifully textured and open. A finish that opens ever-wider, a more ‘present’ salinity too – simply excellent wine.
2022 Chablis 1er Montmains
In the middle of Montmains from 38-year-old vines, all in tank.
Freshness here – not super-wide but really a great invitation. Open, fluid, juicy – not ultra-concentrated but certainly ultra appealing. The finish slowly melts over the then fading – but very slowly – flavours. I love it – simply excellent wine.
From the heart of Vaillons, vines over 70 years old. Like the last, it will be 15 months of tank elevage for this.
Larger scale aromas with the extra, classic, floral dimension of Vaillons. Hmm – now this is super – a little extra depth and dimension to the flavour. Almost a suggestion of reduction but deftly done with an intense, stony finishing flavour encapsulated with sucrosity. Possibly a great Vaillons!
Here in the Côte de Fourneaux/Pregirot
A calmer nose – still with freshness and a mineral-citrus style. Mouth-filling, more structure showing than for the Vaillons. There’s a chalky tannin again, slightly saline, and then a fine line of intensity on the finishing flavour. That’s a really top Fourneaux!
The following not yet bottled:
80% tank, 20% 500-litre barrel for 12 months before a second winter assembled in tank. Bottling with the GCs in May.
A vertical nose – and what depth too – vibrant – that’s a properly great nose! In the mouth too, a vibrant wine – clouded by a hint of gas today but with a gorgeous width of saline-inflected finishing minerality – A great nose and a great finish – with every chance of the complete package. Wait 2-3 years before drinking. Bravo!
2 parcels of 40 and 45-year-old vines: the top of Chapelots, the other at the top of the triangle. With the same vinification as the Mont de Milieu
Not as open as the last but still with a deliciously beckoning aromatic. A little more CO2. The wine fills the mouth with energy and dimensions of flavour. Another super burst of intense finishing flavour – a bit more structural and strict after the MdM – and you know that I love strict! Also, wait 2-3 years but here is the complete package. Bravo!
Almost 100-year-old vines now – ‘from my grandmother’ – 161-49B rootstock for this, but at this age, no problems. All tank elevage for this one.
Not the most forward, but this aromatic is vibrant and has great clarity. In the mouth a chiselled wine of super purity, slightly austere in the best sense of Chablis. A dynamic wine that is already great !!
Côte de Bougros approaching Preuses. Barrel elevage but currently in its last 6 months in tank.
An open width, good energy. In the mouth, you directly sense some oak that wasn’t visible on the nose. The width is so concentrated though – complex & saline – finishing more oaky – wait at least 3 years to avoid that but this could really be a top Bougros!
2022 Chablis Blanchots
More blue clays here. From the west to the east, vines in the middle of the appellation.
More scale of flavour with less obvious oak flavour. This then widens over the palate – that’s a great finish – also with a little oak – but not the same style as the Bougros. Super wine again.
More than 70-year-old vines, from a lower part of Preuses between Bougros and Valmur
The top notes here have both purity and finesse – supported by more concentration with a hint of barrel. Large scale – and great texture before chalky tannin changes that texture. Chiselled in the middle and finishing flavours – oh that’s so great there – a laser-beam of a wine.
Just one barrel in 2022 – ‘I never have much more!’
A fine vibrancy of aroma – larger than Preuses today with a similar concentration and hint of barrel at the base. Ultra direct, ultra Chablis – oh that’s clearly Grand Vin – chiselled, tension, ultra-Chablis even in 2022!
2022 Chablis Vaudésir
2 parcels – one near Moutonne the other near Grenouilles – so both sides of Vaudesir.
Panoramic width with less overt depth than the previous 2 wines. Gas is pushing the intensity a notch higher – but beautifully open architecture and tension here – the barrel present but secondary. Then holding a tight but intense finish – so long. Another beauty.
Over 70-year-old vines at the top of the hill next to the Billaud-Simon/Faiveley vines. One of the worst affected by the frost.
The freshness and width of the last but showing extra depth too. Cool-cold structure, the stoniness is visible here. So broad, so intense, and only very faintly accented by the barrel today. That is a more direct wine of lithe muscle – an athlete – but a top athlete!