Billaud-Simon Chablis Les Vaillons Premier Cru 2020 Front Bottle Shot
Billaud-Simon Chablis Les Vaillons Premier Cru 2020 Front Bottle Shot Billaud-Simon Chablis Les Vaillons Premier Cru 2020 Front Label

Winemaker Notes

Bright, clear hue with attractive golden tinges. This 1er Cru offers remarkable aromatic complexity with aromas of ripe citrus and white flowers. The palate is round and seductive with a lively attack. Excellent length and a refined aromatic persistency combining fruity notes and a delicate acidity. Pleasant sensation of freshness.

Pair with pan-fried foie gras, salmon trout, or baked haddock parcels.

Professional Ratings

  • 93
    From a selection of parcels in Sécher, Chatains, Roncières and Mélinots. Harvested separately and fermented before blending. Bright, very zippy, lemon acidity, crisp, floral, and with nice weight. 50% oak but very subtle, with winemaker Olivier Bailly using 600-litre casks of at least five years’ age for the maturation of Sécher.
    Barrel Sample:
  • 93
    This cuvée comes from almost all round Vaillons with the oldest vines being found in Séchets. Pale colour, a light stoniness backed by a little lemon and plum fruit, faintly lemon scented, a stony and steely central backbone, very typical of the vineyard, though the ripeness removes the most austere aspect of the finish.
    Barrel Sample: 91-93
Billaud-Simon

Billaud-Simon

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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.

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Chablis

Burgundy, France

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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.

SWS563103_2020 Item# 1124200