Over the past few years, we’ve been consistently impressed with the wines from Etienne Boilleau—not least for the serious value-for-dollar they offer. The domaine, which is alternately known as the Domaine du Chardonnay (they bottle wine under both labels), was created in 1987 by Etienne Boileau, William Nahan, and Christian Simon, who pooled their financial and vineyard resources to create a winemaking operation that now has access to 37 hectares of vines. Among these holdings are nine hectares in Premier Cru sites, including parcels of “Montée de Tonnerre,” “Montmains,” “Vaugiraut,” “Vosgros,” “Vaillons” and “Mont de Milieu.”

 

Sharing a similar southwesterly aspect as the Grand Cru sites just to its north, Montée de Tonnerre is also, of course, rich in the Kimmeridgian limestone and fossilized seashells that give top-tier Chablis its inimitable minerality and laser-beam acidity. For the Montée de Tonnerre bottling, Boileau ferments between 20% and 40% of the wine in used French oak barrels, the rest in stainless steel. Later, the oak- and steel-fermented wines are blended and aged in tank, then bottle. This wine has been a consistent performer for us, and is absolutely explosive in 2015—it’s not a fattened-up, ‘young-drinking’ style, as we’re seeing in many 2015s, but rather a focused and concentrated white loaded with power and potential.

 

In the glass, the Boileau 2015 has a reflective yellow-gold core with hints of green at the rim. The aromatics show a pronounced minerality—crushed stones and oyster shells—along with notes of salted lemon, peach pit, lime blossom, a hint of fresh cream, and lots of white flowers. It is incredibly taut and focused on both the nose and palate, and over time I foresee it blossoming and rounding out to show off the yellow apple/pear fruit that currently lurks in the shadow of the minerality. The palate impression is one of tightly coiled power, and the length of the aromatic finish is one of many testaments to the 2015 vintage—it is a wine that stays with you well after you’ve swallowed a sip. After a rough decant and about 30 minutes coming up to a slightly warmer temperature (50-55 degrees is optimal, in my opinion, to really showcase the aromatics), this bottle really blossomed—but there’s no doubt it has the stuffing for 5-10 years’ aging in your cellar. It drinks like wines twice its price! The ideal scenario would be to grab a case and lose about half of it for re-visiting a few years from now; at present, it’ll be lights-out with oysters any way you like them, including broiled, as in the attached recipe. I’m getting thirsty (and hungry) just thinking about it. Enjoy!