2011 Chablis Montee de Tonnerre
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Tasting notes
Crushed rocks, slate, lime and gunflint are at the heart of the 2011 Chablis Montee de Tonnerre. A super-classic Montee de Tonnerre, the 2011 boasts striking elegance, purity and class, not to mention incredible freshness for the year. Gorgeous floral and mineral elements continue to emerge as the 2011 shows off its vibrant minerality and pure class. This is another fabulous showing from BIllaud-Simon.
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
David Schildknecht, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Billaud-Simon’s 2011 Chablis Montee de Tonnerre – from vines principally in Chapelot, and some third of which are among the domaine’s oldest, planted in 1935 – delivers sweetly-ripe pear, kiwi and grapefruit sizzlingly tinged with white pepper, radish and lemon zest, and imbued with a sense of chalk dust suffusion and illusive kelp and seaweed. There is so much going on in this densely packed bottling that you almost want to spread it more thinly to get a better view, which is not something I would say about many other wines of this vintage. I suspect that this one may well gain stature in bottle and will certainly be worth following through at least 2018. When I last visited Bernard Billaud on a June day for my issue 191 report focusing on vintage 2008, he agreed for the first time to show me his young grand crus in advance of bottling and alongside the premier crus that I was used to tasting at that season of the year. Unfortunately, he made emphatically clear on this most recent occasion that such would not be the case; indeed, I was not offered any of the 2012s to taste, but instead the full 2011 collection, and a report on Billaud-Simon’s 2012 will have to wait for next year, before which, in any case, they will not have been put on the market. (In keeping with existing conventions at The Wine Advocate – and seeing that there are modes of vinification in common and only one overlap in cru designations – I have not indicated as part of each wine’s description whether or not it relies entirely on domaine as opposed to contract fruit.) Imported by Langdon Shiverick, Los Angeles, CA; tel. (213) 483-5900
Bright green-tinged yellow. Captivating aromas of white peach, lime and powdered stone are complicated by a gingery nuance. Rich and broad but youthfully tight, with lovely energy and a touch of menthol austerity to the white peach and crushed stone flavors. Mounts slowly and builds impressively on the fresh, dry, backward finish, which boasts a rich pineapple note. This excellent premier cru calls for a few years of cellaring.
This also seems to be ageing fast aromatically. Not as pure as some. And rather astringent. (JR)