Is Billaud-Simon Chablis underrated?

WINE TALK
1

I recently tasted this:

  • 2011 Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru (7/7/2014)
    Light yellow colour with green tints. A very fresh bouquet of greengage, lime, crushed river boulder, minerals, rock salt and lychees. A lovely Chablis nose, with a hint of white flowers. On palate, very pure and rich, with good fruit weight and structure, but real energy, tension and focus. Young and primary, a little clenched in the mid palate. Big boned but with a great mineral and acid backbone. Lime, greengage and peach dominated on the palate but food brought out the richness, the flavours moved more tropical fruit. A long, dry, chalky finish. MoT is my favourite Chablis 1er, and this wine is an excellent example. Give it 3-5 years. (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

It reminded me of this wine I had a few months ago:

  • 2010 Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru (12/17/2013)
    Infanticide, of course, but I couldn’t resist trying one of these. Colour pale gold. An ethereal, pure, clean but fairly subdued bouquet. Aromas of freshly cut lemons and limes, white peach with metallic notes and sea spray. Silky entry to palate. Vibrant, racy acids, very intense and focused with excellent acid balance. Flavours of lime, wet granite and the marine. Very dry, with excellent mid palate weight, power, structure and length. However a little monolithic now, with the weight but not yet the richness and complexity of flavour of an older Grand Cru Chablis. I believe it has the dry extract and acid backbone to blossom into something very special in 5+ years. At present only 93. (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

My hierarchy of Chablis producers has always been: Raveneau (clear, undisputed first), Dauvissat (pretty clear second), William Fevre (probably, a clear third) and others like Billaud-Simon in a group (with Moreau, Louis Michel, Faiveley etc) for fourth. Now, I think I need to revisit that.

Chablis drinkers, what is your hierarchy?

2

Nup. It’s rated.

3

Howard, I like your list except I move B-S, Michel and several others into the group with Fevre. I think I like Picq, Drouhin and Droin just as well.

As usual, thanks for the great notes.

4

Thanks Scott and Jeremy. I should have had Picq somewhere in my short list.

Jeremy, do you rate B-S as up there with (or even ahead of) Dauvissat and Fevre?

Cheers, Howard

5

This is great stuff, especially in 2010.

6

For my taste, Louis Michel is in the third tier, maybe is alone there with Fevre in the fourth. I’d also put Picq in the third, given the quality of their Chablis AC. There are some other under the radar producers like Duplessis that I’d put there, too.

I haven’t had much B-S other than the 1996 MdT, which is definitely a worthy bottle; I’ve got one or two left.

7

Real nice producer, and free of hype which is always nice…will look to buy some of their 2012’s

8

I am a fan of B-S, and it seems quite reasonably priced for the quality.

What’s its premox tendencies? I had a 2007 B-S recently that shower no touch of the pox.

9

Add me to the group of fans of the MdT 1er cru.

Fairly priced too

10

If I could only stay out of mine long enough to find out. [wink.gif]

The '11s MdT is just beautiful already.

11

I love Billaud-Simon. Probably more than Fevre.

12

Big fan here. My Chablis rankings go

  1. Dauvissat
  2. Fevre and Billaud-Simon
  3. Louis Michel and C. Moreau
  4. Dampt, Savary, Picq, Grossot

I absolutely love Billaud-Simons Les Blanchots VV, Preuses and MdT.

13

I don’t have a lot of experience with old B-S but I have not seen, or heard of, many premox issues with them. Their record on oxidised Burgs is not the worst: http://oxidised-burgs.wikispaces.com/Billaud-Simon

In terms of William Fevre, we were very impressed by their 2012 lineup, particularly the Le Clos, recently: 2012 Chablis at Domaine William Fèvre - CellarTracker

14

I rate them very highly Howard, beautifully pure wines. I think Raveneau are at the top with Dauvissat and Fevre just behind. Billaud would be in a group with Tribut and a few others just behind.

Best Regards
Jeremy