2017 Samuel Billaud Chablis les Sechet 1er Cru (Pre-arrival)

The insider’s choice at this domaine is the superb 2017 Chablis 1er Cru Séchet Vieilles Vignes, a terrific wine that is amply living up to its promising showing 12 months ago. Unfurling in the glass with notes of ripe citrus fruit, white flower, crushed chalk and oyster shell, it’s medium to full-bodied, ample and layered, with an elegantly textural attack, excellent concentration and the racy acids so typical of this site. The finish is long and penetrating. This comes warmly recommended.

As I wrote last year, after parting ways with Domaine Billaud Simon after some 20 years, Samuel Billaud has established his own state-of-the-art winery in central Chablis, where he is ably vinifying the fruit of some four hectares of estate vineyards, supplemented by purchased grapes. Manual harvesting of ripe but bright fruit is the rule here, followed by fermentation at 16 degrees to 20 degrees Celsius in tank and inconspicuous wood and maturation for 15 to 18 months on the lees for the premiers crus. These are bright, nervy expressions of Chablis with plenty of concentration and length. In a sense, Billaud’s evolution as a free agent has followed a similar trajectory to that of Billaud Simon under its new management. Producing classy wines of crystalline purity, this address already belongs on any list of Chablis’s best, and the 2017s, revisited from bottle, are showing brilliantly. Billaud was one of several producers who observed that the vintage had tightened up with élevage, and all his 2017 offerings come warmly recommended.