Romain Collet is a mad scientist in the cellar. He’s matched each of his Chablis terroirs with a specific recipe of elevage vessels – a combination of stainless steel tank, concrete egg, clay amphora, and wooden barrels of various ages. Each is designed to bring out the unique character of every plot of vines.
The most clay-rich of Collet’s terroirs is “Butteaux,” a south-east facing sector of the Montmains vineyard on Chablis’s left bank. For this cuvée, Romain ages the wine in a combination of old oak barrels (5 to 10 years). The resulting wine has a concentration and layered complexity somewhere between premier cru and grand cru.
We were blown away by the 2022 Butteaux when we tasted it at the domaine, and so were tasters at this past weekend’s MushroomFest. It’s not exactly classic Chablis – less brisk and angular than some of Romain’s cuvées; but it’s perfectly balanced and simply delicious in the glass. It begins with a rich attack of concentrated fruit that might make you think of modern Puligny-Montrachet, but a vibrant splash of Chablisienne minerals bursts through the palate and it finishes dry and precise.
Jasper Morris MW was similarly impressed, finding “lovely generous fruit yet with tension. Very good this year,” and awarding 91-94 points – just a point behind Romain’s Grand Cru Valmur. Think of it as a particularly stony village-level Puligny-Montrachet, at a roughly 50% discount…
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Collet Chablis 1er “Butteaux” 2022
bottle price: $42
