Jean-Paul Benoit Droin Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir 2024

Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoit Droin has made wine in Chablis since the seventeenth century, and Vaudesir is one of the appellation's seven Grand Cru climats. This is Chardonnay from the Kimmeridgian marl that defines Chablis, a pale limestone and clay packed with fossilised oyster shells that gives the wine its cutting minerality and saline drive. Vaudesir sits in a sheltered, well-exposed amphitheatre within the Grand Cru slope, and its favourable aspect ripens the fruit fully while the cool northern climate holds the acidity firm. The wine spends ten months in barrel, where controlled oak contact and lees ageing add breadth, a subtle toast and a creamy weight, with malolactic softening rounding the acid into a more complex, ageworthy shape. The colour is bright gold-tinged lemon. The nose is layered, lemon and white peach over hazelnut, a light struck-match minerality and a whiff of oak. The palate is concentrated and dry, the ripe Chardonnay fruit framed by a taut mineral core and a long, saline, slightly nutty finish. Serve at 11 to 13 degrees in a large glass, and decant briefly if young.