2024 Domaine Samuel Billaud, Chablis AOC, White Burgundy, France.
The beautifully balanced and perfumed 2024 Chablis from Samuel Billaud is an absolute stunner of a wine with incredible purity, terroir driven character and dynamic energy in the glass, it delivers chiseled mineral/chalky detail, wonderful crisp lemony, peach, apple and kiwi fruits and a lovely Chardonnay textural feel on the medium bodied palate. The vintage saw ultra tiny yields and good concentration of flavors, and as noted, a highly elevated white floral bouquet with exotic jasmine and white roses coming through, along with hints of fresh lime, clove spice and delicate leesy hazelnut notes as well, this is wildly good stuff. Billaud really puts exceptional care into making his wines, with this basic Chablis seeing a gentle and slow pneumatic pressing of carefully sorted whole bunches, along with a long cold settling period with mostly the alcoholic and malolactic fermentation done in small thermo-regulated stainless steel tanks to preserve clarity and purity here. The grapes are sourced from old vines, some from 1952 and some from 1987, at two lieu-dits, Les Pargues, Les Cartes, and Chapelot both on clay-limestone Kimmeridgian marls, which adds to the depth and complexity here. As I noted in my review of Billaud’s Premier Cru Montée de Tonnerre, thee Billaud wines are really attracting a lot of attention and are being sought out by Chablis enthusiasts, so they are getting more and more difficult to find on the shelf of your local wine merchants, but worth the search to get them, which I highly recommend.
I first discovered the Samuel Billaud wines last year and as I mentioned in my original review, Billaud is formerly the the winemaker at Domaine Billaud-Simon, his family’s well pedigreed old school Chablis estate, but Samuel went his own way in 2009 and created his own domaine, as seen here, which has really taken off, putting him into elite company in the region, now compared to Raveneau and Vincent Dauvissat in terms of quality, distinction and terroirs. Most of Billaud’s offerings come from vines set on the classic chalky Kimmeridgian Limestone soils, with Billaud’s and the legendary Raveneau’s parcels (vines) all being mature vines, with his being over 50 years old, that coupled with a cool climate makes for bracing wines with incredible depth and intensity. Billaud, since 2015, has a new winery, and I also learned has recently purchased more outstanding plots, including some Grand Crus and Premier Crus, like the famed Les Clos, Vaudésir, Montée de Tonnerre, Mont de Milieu, Séchet, as well as in the village level vineyards of Les Pargues and Chapelot, (seen here) plus a Petit Chablis parcel directly to the north of Les Clos. Samuel is also sourcing fruit from the grand crus Blanchots, Valmur, and Bougros, so there’s an awesome lineup here and the wines are getting better and even more coveted, this is now a bucket list address in Chablis. So, with all that happening, there’s a lot to get excited about here and this basic Chablis reflects that too, this is a winery to start following right now! Again thanks to my friend and Chablis enthusiast Alex Lallos, who’s No Limits Fine Wines (company) sells this domaine’s offerings, for getting me this bottle.
($38 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive