Peter Maude Fine Wines
2020, Domaine Samuel Billaud, CHABLIS, 'Vaudesir', Grand Cru
From both sides of the valley. Pale colour, a light coconut touch from the wood, but it is the fruit that counts. Racy and energetic, still very backward, with some tannic tension at the back. The white fruit extents beyond but this is still hiding its light compared to say Preuses. As always, the length is impressive. **** 94 Jasper Morris MW.
There is a touch of phenolic character to the pretty aromas of vaguely exotic fruit, wet stone, shellfish and cool quinine. There is better energy to the refined but intense middleweight flavours that possess an almost delicate mouthfeel on the clean, dry and bone-dry finale. This is one of those sneaky long wines where the finish seems to die away only to suddenly reappear. Lovely. 93 Burghound.
2 parcels - one near Moutonne the other near Grenouilles - vines between 30 and 40 years old. The two parcels face each other in this small v-shaped valley. One or two days difference for harvest due to the different/opposite orientations. A faint width of reductive minerality at the base of the aromas. Really a vibrancy and energy here - quite dynamic - more direction than the Preuses and more overt energy - that's two very characterful Vaudésir in one morning! Great and intense finishing. Bill Nanson.
From a parcel that unites east and west exposures, Billaud's 2020 Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir is a brilliant wine in the making. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of white flowers, orange oil, nutmeg, oyster jus, freshly baked bread and crisp stone fruit, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with terrific tension and concentration, concluding with a long, penetrating finish. 96 William Kelley, Wine Advocate (2022).
Drinking Window: 2028 - 2038