Winemaker Notes
An exquisite old-vines Chablis showing int and mineral elements on the nose and palate. Extremely age-worthy.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
Pale to mid lemon, spice, cooked lemon zest, exotic but not over -ripe. A strong youthful bitterness behind, this will take time. Plenty of energy but needs time to come together. Barrel sample: 87-90
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Sourced from three northwest-facing parcels planted between 1951 and 1953, the 2023 Chablis Vieilles Vignes opens with aromas of lemon confit, tangerine, freshly baked bread and beeswax. The palate is medium- to full-bodied, textural and ample, yet racy and vibrant, concluding in a saline finish. It stands as a richer, more expansive expression than the regular Chablis bottling, offering greater mid-palate amplitude.
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.