Samuel Billaud : Chablis 1er cru "Montée de Tonnerre" 2022

Characteristics and Tasting Notes for the Chablis 2022 Samuel Billaud

Tasting

Colour
This French white wine displays a beautiful pale yellow hue with greenish highlights, showcasing perfect clarity and great brilliance.

Nose
The aromatic bouquet stands out for its complexity, revealing scents of green apple, iodine, and delicate floral touches reminiscent of acacia. With aeration, notes of citrus zest, oyster shell, and flint emerge with lovely intensity.

Palate
Juicy and remarkably full-bodied, the palate offers a medium-bodied profile where flavours of lemon, lime, white peach, and pear intertwine. A vibrant acidic backbone supports a crystalline, saline minerality, leading to a lingering and perfectly dry finish.

Food and Wine Pairing
This white wine pairs wonderfully with oysters, shellfish, or grilled white fish. It will also enhance goat cheeses, a full-flavoured cheese such as Époisses, as well as creamy white meats or spring vegetables like asparagus.

Service and Storage
Although this Chablis 2022 is already very approachable in its youth, its fine mineral structure and balance give it excellent ageing potential for years to come.

Other Characteristics
This wine has a moderate alcohol content of around 12.5%.

The Elegance and Mineral Purity of a Burgundy Wine

The Estate
Founded in 2009, the Samuel Billaud estate is located in the heart of Chablis, in Burgundy. After making wine for nearly thirty years at the historic family estate, Samuel Billaud, the current owner and winemaker, struck out on his own. In 2014, he managed to retain four hectares of vines among the finest terroirs of the appellation. Now working in a modern gravity-flow winery acquired in 2015, he crafts wines with passion that are renowned worldwide for their precision. His son Jules is currently preparing to carry on this family legacy.

The Vineyard
The plots dedicated to this Chablis wine rest on the appellation's famous Kimmeridgian soils, composed of calcareous marl and clay rich in tiny fossilised oysters. The estate favours sustainable viticulture through integrated pest management. Particular attention is paid to controlling yields, notably through early hand-performed debudding, which helps concentrate the grapes' substance and mineral expression.

The Vintage
The 2022 vintage began with a frost episode in March, whose effects were limited thanks to late budbreak. The warm spring favoured ideal flowering at the end of May. Summer was marked by intense heat and drought, but saving rains in June and again in mid-August allowed the vines to withstand water stress. Harvest began early, in early September, in order to preserve fine acidity.

Winemaking and Aging
The grapes for this Chablis 2022 are hand-harvested in small crates. A rare practice in the region, a portion of the fine lees is retained during fermentation, which takes place in small stainless-steel tanks with indigenous yeasts at slightly warmer temperatures. The wine is then aged on its lees for at least twelve months, enhancing its textural richness.

Grape Variety
100% Chardonnay.