2020 Domaine Jean Collet et Fils Chablis 1er Cru “Butteaux”, Burgundy, France
ABOUT THIS WINE
The third and western-most lieu-dit on the Montmains hill has the most upfront and rich appeal, more akin to the 1er Crus on the other side of the river. The bedrock is Kimmeridgian marl and the topsoil a mix of heavy blue and white clay, rich in copper—the cause for the bluish tint—and laced with big chunky limestone rocks and small limestone pebbles. In the Collet’s parcel of vines there is about thirty percent clay content with the stones and a soil depth of about fifty centimeters before the mother rock. The slope aspect is steep like Les Forêts and Montmains toward the west on the same hill.
The fruit is hand harvested, whole cluster pressed and spontaneously fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel vats. Temperature control through primary and malolactic fermentation.
Aged in five to ten year-old burgundy barrels for six months then racked into stainless steel.
ABOUT THIS PRODUCER
Jean Collet started Domaine Collet in 1954, the heir of a Chablis grape-growing family since 1792. After the days of Jean, came Gilles, one of the most animated personalities in Chablis. He’s generous, lively and usually the life of the party, always keeping his personality from being as serious as the wines he crafted over numerous decades with his father, and even more so now with his son, Romain. In 2008, Gilles was struck with nerve damage on one side of his body and had to prematurely pass the baton. After only a few years of Romain putting new ideas to the test in the cellar and vineyard—natural yeast fermentations, organic and biodynamic farming—Gilles stepped aside completely and Romain began to make notable leaps from vintage to vintage.
At the young age of twenty-one, the eccentric and fun-loving Romain knocked it out of the park with his first vintage, 2008, which was the first vintage we imported. The foundation established by centuries of viticultural knowhow passed down through generations and Romain’s relentless curiosity and desire for improvement further set the stage for decades of inspired drinking from this domaine gifted with an average vine age of about fifty years. Romain pointed out that, “I am the luckiest generation. To have old vineyards like these to work with in my lifetime is something special, and it’s thanks to my grandfather, Jean.”
Organic viticulture is now part of the domaine’s practice under Romain’s direction—and with full support from the family. The two Grand Crus Valmur and Les Clos, the 1er Crus Montée de Tonnerre, Vaillons, Butteaux and Forêts have all been converted to organic farming, as well as a good portion of the Chablis AOC wine, where the organic culture tests were first done. The rest are sustainable, lutte raisonée, farming with the intention of eventually having all the sites fully converted.
Details:
| Grape(s) | Chardonnay |
| Farming | Biodynamic |