Here the wood influence is quite subtle and easily allows the spicy, elegant, pure and airy aromas of white orchard fruit, quinine and iodine to shine. Once again there is a lovely refinement and underlying tension to the more modestly scaled flavors that also brim with minerality on the compact, bone-dry and beautifully focused finale. This Zen-like effort is the class of the range in 2020.

Score: 94 Allen Meadow (AM), Bourghound (BH), October 2022

From a single parcel planted in 1969, the 2020 Chablis Les Preuses Grand Cru has a taut, focused and slightly earthy bouquet. The palate is nicely balanced with fine acidity, though it lacks a bit of density on the finish, possibly because there is less wood ageing compared to Les Clos (20%). Not bad, but the Les Clos o!ers more.

This marked my first visit to Domaine Samuel-Billaud which was bought from the Billaud family by Faiveley. “We had to do a lot of selection before press and do a longer debourbage,” head winemaker Olivier Bailly told me. “The volume is 15-25hL/ha. We started picking around 15 September. It is a mineral and classic vintage. When you harvest by hand, you can parse out any grey rot grapes and obtain clear juice and good lees. For me, if you have good lees you can continue to work with the wine during its élevage over several months before bottling. For 2021, it is interesting to work this way. The pH is around 3.15 which is a good sign with a good spiciness compared to 2020. It is a different profile to 2017 but it is a classic Chablis. The wines are bottled under Diam 5 and 10 for the Premier Crus and Trescases corks for the Grand Crus.”

Score: 90 Neal Martin (NM), Vinous Media (VM), June 2022