2023 Domaine Henri Costal, Chablis Premier Cru, Vaillons, White Burgundy, France.
The latest Henri Costal 2023 release of Vaillons Chablis follows earlier bottlings, as I’ve mentioned in prior reviews, being a vigorous, impactful and racy Premier Cru that fills out on the palate, but stays nice and tension filled with balance and an appealingly pure throughout. It is graced with classic Chablis terroir markers, like flinty spice, medium bodied layers of green apple, subtle peach and lemon, along with wet stone, tangy lime infused crisp chalky detail, light clove, fig, oyster shell and hazelnut play in the background. This well crafted steely white has control and finesse to really please the hardcore Chablis nuts, it is an alluring wine with a hint of austerity and old fashioned charm, less concentrated or fruity in style. Made by Gilles and Romain Collet, these Costal wines have a lot of talent behind them and some awesome cru parcels of vines, all grown with organic methods on the legendary Kimmeridgian limestone soils, provide the substance, as seen here in this fabulous Vaillons. The Vaillons was fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel and then the wine goes through malolactic fermentation and aging in a combination of stainless tank, neutral barrel 228L barriques, and used 600L demi-muid barrels, all helping promote transparency and terroir transmission.
This small estate a collaboration between famous Chablis producer Domaine Jean Collet and Kermit Lynch, which I first tasted back in 2016, with their 2014 version of this Vaillons bottling, burst on the scene with the famous Collet and Raveneau families consulting, the Domaine Costal Chablis, originally founded in 1932, had a lot of talent going into the wines, and of course the savvy of Kermit Lynch, as an importer, behind the project put it over the top! Kermit adds that in 2018, owner Romain Collet was digging through his family’s archives and found the original label that his great-grandfather, Henri Costal designed and used when he founded the domaine, which is now used again.This label, now under Henri Costal, delivers exceptional quality and pure terroir driven offerings, especially for the price, these are wines to search out. This Vaillons, in particular, is a beauty with good depth of flavor and, as noted above, a heightened mineral steely character. As explained by Kermit Lynch, this project began with a simple barrel tasting with Kermit and led to a custom label, custom vinification, and bottling process exclusively for his American market. The end result of this first tasting was a terroir-driven Chablis from a single vineyard site called Truffières which sung a siren’s song and was a huge hit with those in the know and now the Henri Costal label offers a thrilling lineup of Chablis, including the mentioned basic Chablis Les Truffières, along with Premier Cru bottlings like Mont de Milieu, Butteaux, Montée de Tonnerre, my usual favorite, and this Vaillons, which I recommend.
($52 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive