Placeholder Image

Paul Nicolle, Chablis “Vieilles Vignes”

Burgundy, France 2016 (750mL)
$29.00
/
Your cart is empty.
  • In stock, ready to ship
  • Inventory on the way
Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Paul Nicolle, Chablis “Vieilles Vignes”

The best wines spark conversation, and today’s delicious Chablis certainly had us talking—about how the wine (not just the label) reminded us of the great wines of Raveneau; how Chablis may be the best pound-for-pound white wine experience on earth; and how, if there are still doubters out there as to the existence of minerality in wine, this one would shut them up.
This wine also got me thinking about how we select wines for our offers, and how, on its face, one could look at this bottle’s simple village designation and humble price and think maybe it’s just a pleasant-enough afterthought for us. No. The whole point of SommSelect is to present wines that are special. I looked back at our 700+ offers from 2018: We offered about a dozen Chablis wines. There are about 300 estates in Chablis producing diverse product ranges—we winnow our picks down to a handful of exceptional bottles like today’s 2016 from Domaine Paul Nicolle. This wine really wowed us with its combination of purity, concentration, and chiseled-from-limestone minerality, and I’m still reeling over its price. We grabbed as much as we could to facilitate by-the-case purchases today, which I strongly encourage: You’ll be very happy to have this impeccable, age-worthy white as a go-to for the foreseeable future. From a price-to-quality perspective, you won’t find better anywhere.
The Paul Nicolle domaine is based in the village of Fleys, which sits a few kilometers southeast of Chablis proper, not far from the slope containing the region’s string of Grand Cru vineyards. It was begun in 1979 by Robert Nicolle (Paul’s son) and Josette Laroche, who started making wines from just one hectare of vineyard. Over the years, the built up their vineyard holdings to 20 hectares—including a few hectares in the Premier Cru “Mont de Milieu,” which is just outside Fleys. Today, it’s Robert and Josette’s son, Charly, who runs the show, working in vineyards concentrated around Fleys.

Today’s wine carries the “Vieilles Vignes” moniker, which in this case refers to vineyards averaging about 30 years of age, spanning about 14 hectares in the towns of Chablis, Fleys, Chichée and Béru. Fermented and aged in stainless steel, it spends more than a year in tank aging on its lees, lending it creamy depth to complement its pronounced mineral character.

As with many 2016s from Chablis, there’s great ripeness and approachability to this wine, but it also displays a tautness of structure that prompted our comparisons to Raveneau. Had I tasted it blind, I’m near-certain I’d have guessed Premier Cru here: Good as it is right now (with a rough decant and some time in the glass), this is going to be absolute fire a few years from now. In the glass, it’s a pale yellow-gold with flecks of green and silver, with a complex nose combining fruit, florals, and stone to harmonious effect: scents of yellow apple, lime blossom, stone fruits, lemon curd, white button mushroom, chalk dust, and wet stones carry over to a palate leaning toward medium-plus in body, and the push-pull of ripe fruit and mouth-watering freshness/minerality lends amazing tension. This is as good as village Chablis gets, period—if opening a bottle now, splash it in a decanter 30 minutes before serving in all-purpose white wine stems at 50-55 degrees (you know by now how I like my whites a touch warmer than most to really experience their aromatic range). Over the course of the next 5-10 years, this will only get better and better, so do consider purchasing in quantity: This wine paired with simply-prepared sole or halibut will take the ‘everyday’ wine/food experience to another level. To me, that’s always something to strive for. Enjoy!
Placeholder Image
Country
France
Region
Burgundy
Sub-Region
FranceChablis
Soil
Kimmeridgian Limestone
Farming
Sustainable
Blend
Chardonnay 100%
Alcohol
12.5
OAK
None
TEMP.
50-55
Glassware
All-Purpose Whites
Drinking
Now-2025
Decanting
30 Minutes
Pairing
Brown Butter Sole w/Herb Salad

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

Others We Love