2013 Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoit Droin Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru

(13.3% natural alcohol): Pale bright yellow. Lemon, fresh apricot, honey, silex and oyster shell on the complex nose. Fat, sweet and seamless, with lovely texture and sweetness giving the wine early sex appeal. Not a classic Clos but wonderfully fine-grained and long. This wine, too, may well shut down in the bottle. Droin notes that it's from a cold terroir and thus needs to be cellared. Incidentally, I found Droin's 2013 Montée de Tonnerre to be cooler in style yet even rounder.

Pale yellow. Pungent aromas and flavors of lime, crushed stone, anise and silex. Dense, broad and sweet but gripping too, conveying a powerful sense of dry extract. Wonderful inner-mouth tension and verve here. Finishes saline and very long, with superb thrust. Very complex, intellectual wine with a light touch for all its dusty extract.

Tasted blind at the annual “Burgfest” tasting in Brouilland. The 2013 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos appears to have really upped the ante in the last few months. There are more tropical tones on the nose compared to other Chablis les Clos, exotic at first, but it calms down with time in the glass and bestows lovely apricot blossom and quince aromas. The palate is fresh and vibrant on the entry. Well balanced with a keen thread of acidity, I appreciate the tension and energy here and the salinity that comes through on the aftertaste. This should give 10-15 years of pleasure. Tasted May 2016. Nov 2016, www.robertparker.com