Followers of SommSelect know we have a soft spot for Chablis. Our own experience cellaring Chablis has shown most Grand Crus drink best between 15-20 years of bottle age, or the point when oxygen has evolved the wine into the perfect balance between refreshing minerality and advanced aromatic complexity. This waiting game can be dangerous, though, as one never knows if the wine has expired until the bottle is open. Fortunately, we’ve enjoyed two bottles of this wine and can attest to both its excellence and proper storage.
The vines that produce this bottling hail from Chablis’ Grand Cru “Blanchots”. Daniel-Etienne Defaix owns and farms a tiny sub-parcel of this 15-hectare vineyard. “Blanchots” is named after the white clay that blankets this sloped hillside. There is also green and blue clay, Kimmeridgian soil and most memorably, numerous and large sea fossils (including these breathtaking 1-foot diameter
Ammonites!). These exotic and disparate elements come together to produce a more robust soil that is an ideal counterpoint to Blanchot's chilly southeast face.
The importer of this wine, Neal Rosenthal, is among the wine trade’s more experienced and eloquent voices, so perhaps it makes most sense to share his notes on the estate’s history and present practices:
“Daniel-Etienne Defaix’s ancestors were already cultivating the vine in the sixteenth century at the Château de Faix near Avallon, not far from Chablis. Etienne-Paul Defaix installed the family as vignerons in Chablis during the eighteenth century. Today, Daniel-Etienne Defaix continues this long family tradition as he maintains a domaine of 26 hectares planted exclusively to Chardonnay and primarily in a series of vineyard sites classified 1er Cru. The vineyards are fertilized, when necessary, with a natural compost of cow and horse manure. Treatments in the vineyards are severely limited and never done within two months of the harvest. All the wines at this estate are vinified in a similar fashion.
At harvest a strict triage is done to eliminate unripe and unhealthy grapes; the grapes are pressed slowly for three hours, separated parcel by parcel, with only the finest juice maintained for bottling at the domaine. The wines normally ferment for three weeks (sometimes as long as a month) using only indigenous yeasts and at a temperature of 18 degrees Celsius; the malolactic fermentation is always completed but never artificially rushed (on rare occasion, the ML has taken two years to finish). The wines rest on the fine lees in stainless steel cuves for at least 18 months (and sometimes longer for the 1er and Grand Crus) undergoing a type of batonnage without exposure to air and without the addition of sulfur (utilizing the CO2 created by the malolactic fermentation to conserve the freshness of the wines). The wines are generally not fined nor are they filtered prior to bottling and the wines are never exposed to a “passage a froid” to precipitate the tartrates…the elevage of two winters in a cold cellar does that work naturally. The Domaine Daniel-Etienne Defaix releases its wine to the market only after obtaining several years of bottle age at which point the market has the pleasure of having access to wines that more fully express the remarkable and unique terroir that is Chablis. Note also that the high quality corks used at the domaine are purchased two to three years in advance to secure the finest quality and to ensure the stability of the cork,”-
Rosenthal Wine Group.
Every detail of the 2006 Daniel-Etienne Defaix’s “Blanchots” makes clear that this is a Grand Cru wine. In the glass, it has a brilliant golden core moving to light gold and yellow on the rim. The glass erupts with aromas of Moroccan orange cake, preserved lemon, tangerine oil, macadamia nut honey, orange blossom, white truffle, aged triple creme cheeses, crushed oyster shells, and a touch of melted butter. The palate is bone dry but with a luxurious and creamy richness, exhibiting flavors of creme Anglaise, white peony, roasted nuts and crushed chalk, before finally delivering Defaix’s classic austere and thrillingly endless oyster shell finish. This is a brilliant wine. It will continue peaking over the next 5-8 years; even longer if stored in ideal cellar conditions. As with all Defaix’s wines, this will appreciate some air, so please decant for 30-45 minutes before enjoying at 55-60 degrees in a large Burgundy stem. Daniel-Etienne Defaix also is known to make a second request for his more mature Grand Crus like today’s Blanchots—he asks that it not be served it with predictable Chablis pairings like oysters or raw fish, but instead alongside richer chicken or pork preparations. These are robust, layered wines and they need not be tiptoed around with delicate cuisine—Go big! Cheers,
