2017 Domaine Jean Collet & Fils Chablis 1er Cru "Les Forêts" , Burgundy, France
ABOUT THIS WINE
Les Forêts has a great balance between the spare body and rich core power of Montmains to the east and the flesh and weight of Butteaux to the west, and indeed, it is sandwiched between them. The hill slope of Collet’s parcel is more dramatic than the neighboring lieu-dit, Butteaux, which is much more gradual and quite different from many of the 1er Crus within the Vaillons and Montmains hills. It’s a high-density parcel (10k vines per hectare) notably warmer and less windy due to the small amphitheater in which it sits. Les Forêts has an unusual mark of exotic, bright and sweet fruit and green characters (at least in its youth), possibly due to the warmth. The wine has a unique balance of supreme delicacy and pressure somehow so individual that it merits the attention of anyone who wants to lose themselves in a Chablis of sleek and sublime quality.
Hand harvested, whole cluster pressed and spontaneously fermented with indigenous yeasts. 90% of the fermentation is made in cement tanks and 10% in old 320-liter French oak barrels. No temperature control needed in the cement tanks keep the temperature very constant and takes much longer to ferment. This wine, like all of Collet’s Chablis wines, goes through malolactic fermentation.
Aged in cement and old 320-liter French oak barrels for eleven months and into steel for three months before bottling.
ABOUT THIS PRODUCER
Jean Collet started Domaine Collet in 1954, the heir of a Chablis grape-growing family since 1792. After the days of Jean, came Gilles, one of the most animated personalities in Chablis. He’s generous, lively and usually the life of the party, always keeping his personality from being as serious as the wines he crafted over numerous decades with his father, and even more so now with his son, Romain. In 2008, Gilles was struck with nerve damage on one side of his body and had to prematurely pass the baton. After only a few years of Romain putting new ideas to the test in the cellar and vineyard—natural yeast fermentations, organic and biodynamic farming—Gilles stepped aside completely and Romain began to make notable leaps from vintage to vintage.
At the young age of twenty-one, the eccentric and fun-loving Romain knocked it out of the park with his first vintage, 2008, which was the first vintage we imported. The foundation established by centuries of viticultural knowhow passed down through generations and Romain’s relentless curiosity and desire for improvement further set the stage for decades of inspired drinking from this domaine gifted with an average vine age of about fifty years. Romain pointed out that, “I am the luckiest generation. To have old vineyards like these to work with in my lifetime is something special, and it’s thanks to my grandfather, Jean.”
Organic viticulture is now part of the domaine’s practice under Romain’s direction—and with full support from the family. The two Grand Crus Valmur and Les Clos, the 1er Crus Montée de Tonnerre, Vaillons, Butteaux and Forêts have all been converted to organic farming, as well as a good portion of the Chablis AOC wine, where the organic culture tests were first done. The rest are sustainable, lutte raisonée, farming with the intention of eventually having all the sites fully converted.
Details:
| Grape(s) | Chardonnay |
| Farming | Biodynamic |