Daniel-Etienne Defaix
Domaine du Vieux Chateau Vaillon Chablis 1er Cru Chardonnay
Chablis, Burgundy, France
My first time trying a wine from Daniel-Etinne Defaix, a Chablis winemaker known for releasing some of his wines very late to the market (this 2006 is on release now, a full sixteen years after the vintage).
How it looks: A flash of green through the amber hue already drops this into Chablis for the blind taster.
How it smells: seduction in a glass, everything you want from Chardonnay with age. From primary to tertiary, every aroma sits in perfect balance with the others in the glass. There’s bitter lemon, burnt butter, vanilla, peach and that delightful hint of honey that Chardonnay shows with age.
How it sips: lean, intense and complex on the palate, with great tension and acidity, and a fantastic sense of water on rock. Surprisingly, this showed better on the second night - by some margin, too. It fully opened up on the palate, with tremendous width and shocking drinkability.
Ultimately, this is an incredibly pure expression of Chardonnay from the Vaillons climat without much intrusion of oak. And heck, this has acidity for days - so I’d love to try it again in ten years, for fun.
Enjoyed with lemon sole on the second night, which I must say provided great emotion.
My first time trying a wine from Daniel-Etinne Defaix, a Chablis winemaker known for releasing some of his wines very late to the market (this 2006 is on release now, a full sixteen years after the vintage).
How it looks: A flash of green through the amber hue already drops this into Chablis for the blind taster.
How it smells: seduction in a glass, everything you want from Chardonnay with age. From primary to tertiary, every aroma sits in perfect balance with the others in the glass. There’s bitter lemon, burnt butter, vanilla, peach and that delightful hint of honey that Chardonnay shows with age.
How it sips: lean, intense and complex on the palate, with great tension and acidity, and a fantastic sense of water on rock. Surprisingly, this showed better on the second night - by some margin, too. It fully opened up on the palate, with tremendous width and shocking drinkability.
Ultimately, this is an incredibly pure expression of Chardonnay from the Vaillons climat without much intrusion of oak. And heck, this has acidity for days - so I’d love to try it again in ten years, for fun.
Enjoyed with lemon sole on the second night, which I must say provided great emotion.
Lime and lemon. M acidity. Floral and very delicious after 15 years
Lime and lemon. M acidity. Floral and very delicious after 15 years
Jan 6th, 2022
