Tasted in Chablis with Olivier Bailly, 07 April 2022.
Domaine Billaud-Simon
1 quai de Reugny
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 42 10 33
www.billaud-simon.com
More reports with Domaine Billaud-Simon
Olivier on the frost of 2022:
“Nothing was definitively pruned, so in many places, at this stage, I think zero losses – there are losses of course but we can’t compare here to last year.”
Olivier on 2020:
“We averaged 39 hl/ha – we’d love to be making 50 hl/ha but this has been about the average for the last years. It was 44 hl/ha in 2019, 2021 brought, on average, 29 hl/ha though only 18 hl/ha on the plateau above the grand crus… We console ourselves with the quality I think we have a nice series of vintages. The most frustrating thing – not just for us in Chablis – is that we have no chance to assuage the demand for our wines – the quality-price is really excellent in Chablis – we can still make bottles that are grand with age – and for an affordable price – but the quantity is severely limited. We have roughly 13° for the wines in 2020 – all-natural but still with great acidity – a proper Chablis acidity but with enough roundness of fruit to make them not too austere for first-time tasters.”
The wines…
The pyrazines of 2020 crop up in a couple of important wines, otherwise such a great range – there are many wines that I’d happily make a special search to purchase!
Entry wines are DIAM – that’s the first three. Then it’s NdTech for the Montée de Tonnerre and the grand crus:
2020 Petit Chablis Sur Les Clos
Two parcels from the flat land on the top of the hill above the grand crus of Les Clos and Valmur – totalling 1.33 hectares. ‘Classic’ elevage in tank, except one demi-muid for the extra volume.
A beautifully acidulated nose. A hint of green in the complexity – but fine complexity it is – lovely texture, waves of delicious flavour. Super finishing – that’s very good!
An assembly of many parcels including some purchased must to augment the domaine’s right-bank vines – but a little over 4 hectares worth. Elevage mainly tank but one or two barrels. Bottled just before the 21 harvest
A broader freshness – that’s very lovely. More direct, very silky, not a trace of green here – very mineral, beautifully mouth-watering. So juicy finishing too. Bravo – great villages.
All the following wines were bottled in January:
Parcel selections – ‘a skeleton of parcels that are always used and always better and the rest are selected from some other areas depending on the vintage to make the best cuvée’ – a little wood including some new large-format barrels – 500 and 600-litres. The current commercial vintage remains the 2019s…
A narrower but deeper nose that’s vibrant and mineral – more overtly saline than the previous two. Great texture again – more width – a wine with extra salinity and beautifully mouth-watering flavour – more considered and generous than the first cuvée but still finely balanced and an oak component that is almost negligible – just a little mid-palate extra. Also bravo – just wait 12-24 months before attacking.
Two parcels in Chatains, 2 in Sechets and one each in Minot and Roncières – 3 hectares.
Ooh – that’s vibrantly, attractively, mineral, heavily accented with lemon-citrus – yes! Direct, but still with a couple of millimetres of cushioning. Fluid, complex – absolutely delicious – a top 1er – bravo!
2020 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
Normally 0.25 ha. The last part of Vaupulent.
Wide – more wide – freshness and minerality here – a fine invitation. More intense and, like the nose, wider – there’s silk but there is also intensity – a wine for waiting. I’d give this at least 2 years of patience. It seems to have everything. I’d say excellent – and if it starts to calm – normally they do – it will be great!
2020 Chablis 1er Vaulorent
From Fourchaume, bought grapes – the only difference for the label/capsules is the missing ‘Domaine’…
Deeper, still wide, still mineral – a little less overt. Super texture, more calm – rounded – more wood? (Yes) But clearly excellent wine with waves of fine, finishing, flavour – yum!
2020 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
Four parcels, 0.35 ha at the top pulled out after the 2015 harvest as there was virus and too low yields. 2.74 ha in total.
The most floral-perfumed of these wines, so far. Great shape – properly mineral, more architecturally structured. As all, super texture. The finish is narrower but more persistent vs the Vaulorent. Simply excellent wine – there’s finesse here and it’s certainly the most perfumed, so far.
2.15 ha in three parcels. Some of the oldest vines of the domaine are here with 80-85 years of age. An important part to the domaine – the average age of vines here is at least 40 years of age. Almost all tank elevage for this wine.
Good volume and great, pure, freshness to this nose – growing with citrus complexity too. Mouth-filling but not with overgenerous flavour – this is lithe and mobile – almost fluid in style. Broadening for the finish – like Vaulorent and Mont de Milieu in shape. Super-persistent! Great premier cru!
2020 Chablis Bougros
Extra dimensions of higher tones – it’s really a step forward in aromas – but always with fine clarity. Intense – almost resembling the Fourchaume for its acidulated energy – but just a little less demanding of cellar-patience. A small touch of barrel seems present which helps round out the wine today. Simply excellent pure, intense grand cru.
2020 Chablis Valmur
Another small production – contracts, like the Bougros – 50% more than the Blanchots.
This may be the first GC I’ve found with some pyrazine – relatively prominent. Great shape and super energy. A little finishing oak. Love the energy and shape – the insensitive will love all of this!
2020 Chablis Les Blanchots
The tiniest parcel of grand cru here, just 0.18 ha – also right at the top near their parcel of Les Clos. ‘This the parcel that suffers most in the heat so it’s more of micro-cuvée in 2020 – less than 400 bottles in this vintage – half what is expected.’ No barrel here.
Normal service is resumed – a fine volume of aroma here – not as focused as some – yet – with a little extra floral perfume too. Mouth-filling – no lack of focus for this fine, direct, silken flavour. That’s a beauty – pure, intense but never sharp – structured but never hard. You could drink this now – but all the better in 5+ years time…
Three parcels here that come to 0.49 ha – two in the colder part – that brings freshness in warm years.
Hmm – higher-toned – that’s clearly showing with more precision today than the aromas of the Blanchots. Extra mineral, extra clarity. Great wine – It’s rare that Vaudésir gets me going but here is yet another one from 2020 – bravo!
All tank elevage.
Some extra perfume here – but a nose that’s not quite ‘showing’ to the extent of the Vaudésir. Beautiful in the mouth – no padding just a mouth-watering cascade of flavour – mineral, a suggestion of micro-grained tannin framing these flavours. A different style of energy to last – but energy all the same. Very high class, and the most perfumed finish of any of these wines. I’ve a sneaking preference for the Vaudésir today but in 5 years I reserve the right to change my mind – this is still a great one!
2020 Chablis Les Clos
Assembly from barrel – now bottled like the others.
Rounder, more spiced – some auto-suggestion, perhaps, as I know there’s more oak in this – also a faint touch of pyrazine again. Broad, mouth-filling, cushioned – large-scaled wine – seemingly more of everything, certainly oak – there is a hint of pyrazine but less than in the Valmur. Really hard to position this wine as it is so different. At home I probably wouldn’t touch one for 5 years – it is very good but I’d like to see how it develops…