2021 Chablis Village
France
Chablis
Burgundy
White
Chardonnay
00
2023 - 2028
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Benoît Droin has really taken his domaine to new heights over the last decade. As I mentioned in previous reports, Droin might not be the purist's choice since he harvests by machine and argues convincingly how its advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Given the sentiments of some growers lamenting the difficulties of obtaining pickers, coupled with the increasing need to harvest at precisely the right time, year by year, Droin seems prescient in his choice. The bottom line is that his wines do the business, triumphing at various Burgfest blind tastings with such regularity that attendees almost laugh at the predictable outcome. This year, I tasted two vintages, the 2021s at the tasting room in the center of town and then shimmied over to his Arctic-like vat-room for the gestating 2022s. “The 2022 vintage is fresher than 2020,” Droin explains. “It was slightly cooler, plus the yields are slightly higher. We picked from August 29. The difference is that in 2020, we had a heat spike at the end of July, which I vividly recall since I was fishing with friends. It burnt one side of the bunches, and then we lost around 20% of the potential crop. However, in 2022, the temperature was always around 32° Celsius, and the nights were not too hot. We picked at around 27 to 28hL/ha for the Premier Crus but 35hL/ha for the Grand Crus, yet just 12hL/ha for the Petit Chablis.” I am a huge fan of these wines, whose strength is Benoît Droin’s assiduous use of used oak and stainless steel. The highlight in 2021 resides with the Grenouilles, but in the 2022 vintage, where the summer heat erased a lot of nerve and tension, the wines somehow manage to retain those crucial elements, with an extremely consistent array of wines.
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2023 - 2032
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“For me, 2021 is near a classic vintage,” Benoît Droin explained as we toured the vats in his spotlessly-clean winery. “It was an awful vintage in the beginning due to the frost when we lost around 50% of the crop, mostly Petit Chablis and Chablis [Village]. Nowadays we don’t have normal frosts. In 2021 some Premier and Grand Crus were not affected. Afterwards the season was normal but everything was delayed. There was a good quantity of rain, that I think helped with the yield. It was difficult with mildew pressure but not too bad, and I was happy to have the water. We started picking on 19 September when the cold nights helped with the freshness. It’s a long time since I've seen these levels of malic, 4-5g/L. That's more Chablis style. Everything is picked by machine but some parcels I crop by hand, but it depends on the plot. For me, it is not a problem. Yields were 27 to 28hL/ha but they were 35hL/ha for Grand Crus. In Petit Chablis it was just 12 hL/ha. All wines are finished and will be bottled in two months. Everything bottled under Diam since 2011.”