Lest you think this wine is just a simple, generic Chablis, remember that this is Domaine Guy Robin we’re talking about: As we’ve learned firsthand while offering many great whites from this property, there’s nothing ordinary about anything they do. Even this bargain-priced, village-level bottling delivers a level of depth usually reserved for much higher designations (and price points).
The estate’s calling card is a formidable stand of vieilles vignes (‘old vines’), originally acquired in the 1960s and lovingly tended in the subsequent decades, when many Chablis producers ripped out their vineyards so they could re-plant with higher-yielding clones. As avowed lovers of Chablis, it’s painful for us to acknowledge that this region has seen perhaps more than its share of ‘industrial’-scale viticulture and winemaking—but the Robin domaine is part of a major resurgence in Chablis of more naturally made, hand-farmed wines. This wine, in addition to showcasing 2015’s exuberant generosity, leaves a few details off its front label that we find pretty important—namely, that the old-vine sites supplying the fruit for this wine sit at the top of the slope between the Premier Crus “Montmains” and “Vaillons.” Once again, we’re playing Burgundy’s endless intricacies to our advantage; this is a wine to hoard, so that you can watch it evolve over the next decade. Like your trusty 5-iron or your favorite jeans, you will turn to it often and always be happy you did!
The Robin family has deep roots in Chablis, literally and figuratively. Namesake Guy Robin assembled most of the family’s holdings back in the 1960s, and these included significant stands of ‘pre-phylloxera’ vines—i.e., vineyards that escaped the deadly phylloxera epidemic of the late-1800s. Although the phylloxera ‘louse’—an aphid that destroys the roots of vines—devastated the European wine industry (forcing vignerons to graft vines onto phylloxera-resistant American rootstocks), it didn’t get everybody. Some pockets of Europe were spared, especially spots with sandy and/or volcanic soil, and in Robin’s case, a good 80% of their modern-day vines are still on their “own,” pre-phylloxera rootstock. As noted above, they were never re-planted.
Despite this incredible patrimony, however, the Robin wines had fallen into mediocrity; one of their US importers dropped them for a time, but the arrival of fourth-generation Marie-Ange Robin in the early 2000s was a huge shot in the arm. A successful fine art dealer in Paris, she returned home to the family estate and began tending their historic vines more naturally, using the lutte raisonnée method (essentially organic, except in emergencies). Some of the Robin holdings, which span five Grand Crus and four Premier Crus, are 80+ years old.
Average vine age in the plots that supplied the fruit for this 2015 is 40 years. The grapes were hand-harvested and fermented on indigenous yeasts in stainless steel, after which the wine was aged in tank and bottled unfined and unfiltered. In the glass, the 2015 is a fairly deep straw-gold with some green highlights at the rim, and the assertive aromas are headlined by salted lemon, yellow and green apple, citrus zest, hay, and lots of crushed oyster shell minerality. It is generous on the palate, with good concentration of fruit balanced by salty, stony minerality and, of course, racy acidity. It is a far cry from the general run of thin, steely Chablis you typically find at this price point, and it only promises to get better with age: cellar it and revisit it periodically over the next 10+ years. If you open one now, which you should, decant it about 30 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems at 50-55 degrees. The combination of briny tang and creamy richness in the attached recipe should serve this delicious wine well. Stock up while it lasts—it is so worth it!
