Chablis from a top producer, working a special Premier Cru, with optimal bottle age (and verifiable provenance!) is one of the most memorable pleasures afforded a white Burgundy lover. Unfortunately, wines fitting this description are most often expensive as well. So, today I’m excited to share an example that not only delivers the goods (true limestone soil character and the rich, silky texture that only comes with time), but also a price point everyone can raise a glass to.
We’ve purchased what little remains of Daniel-Etienne Defaix’s gorgeous 2003 Chablis Premier Cru “Les Lys” to share with our top customers. In my experience, most Premier Crus drink best between 10 and 20 years of bottle age, or the exact point when oxygen and subtle maturation has created the perfect equilibrium between refreshing minerality and advanced aromatic complexity. This waiting game can be dangerous, as one never knows if the wine has expired until the bottle is open. So, with this in mind, we’ve taken the two extra steps of (1) purchasing today’s wine from the same frigid cellar into which it was first imported years ago; and (2) “falling on the sword” by testing numerous bottles at our warehouse in Sonoma. Step two was difficult, but we made it through and can now attest to the superlative quality and mint condition of today’s wine. It’s a winner, and we can offer up to 6 bottles per customer until the allocation runs out.
Even in a historically rich appellation like Chablis, Premier Cru “Les Lys” is special. The vineyard, which sits at the top of the hill of “Vaillons,” was once owned by the French monarchy (as indicated by the fleur-de-lis, or “Les Lys”). While most other parcels on this hill face south, “Les Lys” faces the opposite direction, overlooking a bewildering expanse of Chablis Grand Crus. This site’s unique aspect and chalky soils make for wines of remarkable delicacy and precision. The specific sub-parcel that produces today’s elegant beauty is a southeast-facing slope in a section known as “Clos du Roi” (“The King’s Vineyard,” effectively a monopole of the Defaix estate). The Defaix family owns 3.5 hectares of the 5-hectare “Les Lys” and believes this is the best soil it has to offer.
Daniel-Etiene Defaix has built a reputation in Chablis by innovating his own unique, dynamic, and extremely time-consuming process. The most exciting work begins at harvest, when a strict triage is performed to eliminate unripe and unhealthy grapes. Next, grape clusters are pressed slowly for three hours with only the finest juice maintained for bottling at the domaine—all the rest is sold off to neighboring producers. In 2003, the vast majority of “Les Lys” was sold, leaving a minuscule amount of wine that is both delicious and built for extended cellar aging. Defaix’s whites normally ferment for three weeks (sometimes as long as a month) using only indigenous yeasts. Malolactic fermentation is always completed but never artificially rushed—sometimes it takes a few months, sometimes it takes years. Defaix’s various Chablis releases age on fine lees (spent yeast cells) in stainless steel tanks for at least an additional 18 months, and sometimes longer for a top wine like today’s. Today’s selection was not fined, filtered, or cold-stabilized before bottling. Instead, Defaix aged it in his bone-chillingly cold cellar so that temperature and gravity could deliver a perfectly bright and clear finished product to the bottling line. Because these wines are built for aging, Defaix finishes the process with superior-quality corks purchased years in advance to ensure durable and reliably air-tight closure.
Defaix’s 2003 Chablis Premier Cru “Les Lys” has a pale golden center proceeding to clear and faintly green tones at the rim. Following the initial glimpse of its elegant appearance, this wine immediately draws attention to its remarkably soft and silky texture. 13+ years of age has smoothed all its hard edges and perfectly integrated each distinct component into one harmonious arc of flavor. This wine’s aromatic palette draws from generous, round fruit as well as austere, chalky soil. Asian pear, honey crisp apple, acacia honey and white flowers sit beautifully atop a deeply mineral, oyster shell core. This 2003 is perfectly mature right now, so while I encourage you to decant it for 15-20 minutes before serving in large Burgundy stems, I urge you to err toward conservatism. This is a delicate, immaculately aged wine that will not be flattered by a night left open on the dinner table, so drink it within a few hours of pulling the cork, preferably alongside a rich, wintry seafood preparation like the attached. That’s a pretty affordable, and very impressive, weeknight combination I’d love to be a part of. Enjoy!
