Domaine Gerard Duplessis Chablis Montmains Premier Cru 2016
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Wine &
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Robert
Parker
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Wine & Spirits
Lilian Duplessis took over his family’s domaine in 1999, and farms 19.8 acres of vines under organics (Ecocert certified). He has two parcels in Montmains, about 60 years old, which he vinifies separately with ambient yeasts in stainless steel, where the wine rests for 12 months before spending six months more in barrels. Aside from his holding in Les Clos, he finds that these parcels in Montmains produce his longest-lived Chablis. His 2016 is among the greatest wines I’ve tasted from chardonnay vines, partly for its pure fruit essence, more for its heart-stopping delicacy. It fills the head with scents of white flower petals and white truffles, crisp apple, green pear and shellfish broth. Obtuse in its delicious angles and perspectives on a vineyard in Chablis, this is full of life, that sensation lasting outside of time as those seductive scents and flavors continue to unfold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chablis 1Er Cru Montmains has a complex bouquet with scents of orange pith, yellow plum and light resinous scents that surface with time. The palate is fresh and tangy on the entry with a touch of marmalade here and a little more sourness that counters the richness of this Montmains and leaves the finish feeling very balanced and focused. This is one to watch out for once in bottle.
Barrel Sample: 91-93
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One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The source of the most racy, light and tactile, yet uniquely complex Chardonnay, Chablis, while considered part of Burgundy, actually reaches far past the most northern stretch of the Côte d’Or proper. Its vineyards cover hillsides surrounding the small village of Chablis about 100 miles north of Dijon, making it actually closer to Champagne than to Burgundy. Champagne and Chablis have a unique soil type in common called Kimmeridgian, which isn’t found anywhere else in the world except southern England. A 180 million year-old geologic formation of decomposed clay and limestone, containing tiny fossilized oyster shells, spans from the Dorset village of Kimmeridge in southern England all the way down through Champagne, and to the soils of Chablis. This soil type produces wines full of structure, austerity, minerality, salinity and finesse.
Chablis Grands Crus vineyards are all located at ideal elevations and exposition on the acclaimed Kimmeridgian soil, an ancient clay-limestone soil that lends intensity and finesse to its wines. The vineyards outside of Grands Crus are Premiers Crus, and outlying from those is Petit Chablis. Chablis Grand Cru, as well as most Premier Cru Chablis, can age for many years.