2006 Chablis Montee de Tonnerre

Billaud’s 2006 Chablis Montee de Tonerre combines high-toned herbal and citrus oil aromatics with a firm, impressively mineral palate that reflects a mixture of 40-year-old and truly ancient vines. Tactile pungency of white pepper, lemon zest, wintergreen, and chalk dust inform a concentrated matrix of yellow plum, white currant, and white peach, and this finishes with firm grip and minerality yet persistently juicy refreshment. To his knowledge, claims Bernard Billaud, only Louis Michel among serious Chablis growers vinifies such a high percentage of his crop, even of grand cru, in tank. Clearly a man of strong opinions, Billaud reportedly fails to see eye to eye with his nephew and heir, and the property is rumored to be in danger of legally splitting into two. Billaud was not one of those who rushed out immediately to pick 2006s. The harvest was rushed, yes, he says, but only because he felt it necessary to wait close to a week for additional phenolic ripeness, at which point he had to capture it in the face of dropping acidity and rising sugars. I was not able to taste the 2006 grand crus – which remained in tank at the time of my visit, and constitute only a small percentage of the estate’s acreage – but I found the 2005 Preuses and Les Clos deeply savory, multi-dimensional, bright, and gripping (rating them 92 and 93 points respectively) and the 2005 Blanchots Vieilles Vignes (which, exceptionally, was vinified entirely in older barriques) very nearly as formidable. Billaud thinks his 2006s offer some of the minerality of 2004 combined with the ripeness of 2005. Imported by Langdon Shiverick, Los Angeles, CA; (213) 483-5900