“It’s going to be a quicker tasting than usual,” Romain Collet chuckled as he welcomed us into his tasting room this spring. As with most addresses in Burgundy, 2024 was not an easy one at the Domaine Collet. The weather gods were particularly tough on Chablis, and Romain lost two cuvées (Forêts and Butteaux) entirely, amid losses everywhere.
But the surviving wine is delicious, and, as usual in Chablis, a terrific value. Romain’s best wine this year was his Chablis 1er Cru “Vaillons” – it’s always been a reader favorite and this vintage makes it easy to see why. Romain raises this left bank cuvée in three different vessels, one third each: stainless steel tank, barrel, and huge foudre. There’s no hint of oak, but the three methods blended together round the wine beautifully into a complex cuvée with a very long finish.
It has a bit more weight than classical Chablis, but avoids being flat or overly tropical. There’s a pleasant stoniness amid the fleshy dry-fruited mouthfeel. Burghound found “citrus and apple” with “voluminous middle weight flavors that flash a subtle bead of minerality.” This is unusually good on its own this year – pair with anything or nothing.
____________________________
Collet Chablis 1er Cru “Vaillons” 2024
bottle price: $45
