Winemaker Notes
Floral and lemony notes intertwine with mineral undertones. Fresh and silky on the palate with an elongated finish.
Another climat on the left bank of the Serein, the winemaking once again follows the same regimen (15-18 months on the lees in a combination of used barrels and stainless steel). Vaillons is one of the largest climats of the region at over 129 hectares. Thomas Labille showcases Vaillons at it’s best, with delicate floral tones and an intense, gunflint-like edge.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Notes of baked apple and preserved yellow plums are richly concentrated in this full-bodied but steely Chablis matured 12 months in stainless steel. It’s a robust, sun-drenched expression of Vaillons in a ripe vintage, held upright by tart tangerine acidity. Approachable now, the wine should hold well through 2029.
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.