Benoit Droin, Christian Moreau
Yes, we know - our Burgundy en primeur campaign is getting off to a slow start. A lot of you are wondering where the offers are, but we haven't forgotten about you! Blame it on Brexit, on Covid, on the Suez Canal or little green men, the fact of the matter is that the allocations are coming through to us more slowly than in previous years. Bear with us, and we'll get there. As usual, we start up north…
As near to Paris and Sancerre as it is to Beaune, and separated from the rest of Burgundy by the Morvan massif, it can be a surprise to remember that Chablis is in fact Burgundy's most northern extent. The wines of Chablis offer a steely, flinty, age-worthy expression of Chardonnay, quite distinct from the Cote de Beaune. They are often unoaked, and are often described as having an oyster-shell character. And in Chablis, as in Burgundy as a whole, 2020 is a splendid vintage.
Over the last twenty years, Benoit Droin has shown an ever more adroit hand, reaffirming Droin's place in the region's top tier. In his time in charge he has dialled back on the new oak his father introduced, switched all fermentations to indigenous yeast and, after extensive experimentation, moved to Diam closures for all cuvees - he believes these are a better guarantee of quality and longevity. With an impressive array of crus his wines constitute a fascinating flavour map of Chablis terroir.
Fabien Moreau says his goal is to make 'the most classical Chablis possible' - and the way to achieve that is 'through a balance between ripeness and tension'. His family's Domaine Christian Moreau, another of our Chablis favourites, was only officially constituted in 2002, but in reality is the culmination of six generations of work and history. Mineral and intense, tangy, structured, sometimes austere but always elegant, these are beautiful wines. /NT
Read our full 2020 Burgundy vintage report here.
Offered subject to remaining unsold; for shipment Spring 2022
