2016 CHABLIS GRAND CRU GRENOUILLE JEAN-PAUL DROIN - 6x75cl

Tasting Notes

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  Goedhuis, December 2017

  Hailing from the smallest grand cru in Chablis, these 80 year old vines grown on deep marl soils produce a wine of intensity and depth. Its acidity is ripe and luxurious, meaning the wine is the very inverse of austere or inaccessible. It is open and generous, with an underlying power. What it lacks in the way of Les Clos’s minerality and nerve it makes up for in depth of flavour and satisfyingly savoury length.

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  Neal Martin, August 2018,
  Score: 94

  The 2016 Chablis Grenouilles Grand Cru has a clean and precise bouquet with granite and flint aromas mixed with pressed white flowers, red apple and Conference pear. The palate is very well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, taut and linear, open and one of the most generous 2016 from Droin at this early stage. In fact, you could almost drink this now, especially to savour upon the long spicy aftertaste. This is a deeply satisfying, quite involving Grenouilles from Droin. Drink 2020 - 2038

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  Neal Martin, December 2017,
  Score: 91-93

  The 2016 Chablis Grand Cru Grenouilles was certainly the most minimalist of Droin’s grand crus—austere and reserved at this stage. The palate is clean and precise with notes of orange sorbet and tangerine. It is quite feminine and elegant, approachable in style but maybe without the ambition of the Valmur or Vaudésir. We will see... Drink 2021-2040

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Producer

Domaine Jean-Paul Droin

It is quite something to be the 14th generation of your family making wines in the same town since 1620. Unsurprisingly over this 400-year period, the Droins have built up a sizeable 26-hectare estate and an enviable portfolio of appellations from both Grands and Premiers Crus within the Chablis region. Benoît joined his father at the estate in 1999 at the age of 24, and for the last decade has assumed total control. During this period, he has continued the family’s respect for their fine terroir and soil but has quietly adjusted the winemaking style. The use of oak is less prevalent today than in his father Jean-Paul’s time, resulting in a greater terroir identity to the domaine’s wines and a mineral drive and edge. At the risk of testing his natural modesty, Benoît is very firmly positioning himself and the estate as one of Chablis’s greats. Regularly achieving top spot in blind tastings, in our view his brilliance is unsurpassed today.