Droin Chablis

K

Kevin Courtney

Location
Marlborough
I have been enjoying the Droin Chablis, which has a certain vibrancy and excitement about it, and thought I would step up to the Montee de Tonnerre for some extra intensity, but to be honest I have found it a little disappointing; somewhat bland and flat. Has anyone tried the Montee? Bottle variation? The hot vintage? Needs time? Any thoughts?
 
I'm not sure that Benoit excels in warmer, higher volume vintages, Kevin - like 2018 vs his great 2017s. But there shouldn't be too much bottle variation - he has decent volumes and all the bottles are identically DIAM sealed
 
Love Droin Chablis - my favourite producer (or at least, my favourte that I can actually afford).
I generally find them more chiseled than others. I had a range of the Montee de Tonerre recently. (2010 thru 2015 I believe) and found them all as expected. As Bill says, those Diam corks are a winner for me. Never had a poor bottle from them.
 
Big fan of Droin here too. I think the MT is excellent and has been a good step up in intensity/vibrancy from the village wine for me in past vintages so maybe a vintage specific issue or bottle variation Kevin. Had a lovely case of 2010, currently working through 2013. I recently had my first bottle of 2014 MT and it was outstanding.
 
Another fan of Droin here as well... Experience is limited to the village 2017. I too have pondered buying 1er crus, however they are significantly more expensive and perhaps garner one possibly two more critic points. I would love to try a 1er cru but from a VFM point of view not sure if they justify the extra ££££s over the village.
 
Graham Harvey said:
Another fan of Droin here as well... Experience is limited to the village 2017. I too have pondered buying 1er crus, however they are significantly more expensive and perhaps garner one possibly two more critic points. I would love to try a 1er cru but from a VFM point of view not sure if they justify the extra ££££s over the village.
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I have some sympathy with that Graham, I think the Premier Cru and Grand Cru pricing has jumped a lot for Droin in the last 2-3 years. The reason I originally bought Droin premier and grand cru was because they were such good value versus Cote de Beaune, and the price differential was minimal between levels so I could try up and down the hierarchy. For example I bought 2014 MT for 17.50ib per bottle which I consider excellent value for what I got (Les Clos was also about £30 which given the vintage reputation is now great value in retrospect). But prices are definitely a significant step above that now, although still relatively good value versus CdB
 
The price of most good Chablis has risen significantly in recent years. Decent 1er crus now routinely cost over £30, e.g. Droin, Michel, Duplessis.

I like Droin’s wines but certainly at Grand Cru level I now question the value. And anyone thinking of taking a punt on older examples needs to accept the risk of POx. I had quite a few POxed examples.
 
Montmains is generally a cooler area, Chris - it made many great wines in 2018 when other terroirs became much less overtly 'Chablis' - at least young.
Typically a bit more austere than most, in a vintage like 2014 you probably waited just about the right amount of time to start attacking!
 
I was pondering whether to buy any Droin in 2020 and given Kevin's thoughts on the village wine, am tempted to buy some of those for the first time - anyone else buying?
 
Chris Welsh said:
I was pondering whether to buy any Droin in 2020 and given Kevin's thoughts on the village wine, am tempted to buy some of those for the first time - anyone else buying?
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I bought a few Grand Cru bottles after seeing Burghound's recent reviews. He doesn't think they're quite as good as 2019, but still a good vintage.
 
Chris Welsh said:
I was pondering whether to buy any Droin in 2020 and given Kevin's thoughts on the village wine, am tempted to buy some of those for the first time - anyone else buying?
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I'm going to pick up a few bottles each of village, 1er and GC, not decided which yet though. I like Droin and think the prices are fair for the quality in the context of the region. DIAM corks a major major plus too.
 
Droin is great stuff, esp the 2017s, 2019s probably even better. In the age of global warming, the smart money has to be on the best terroirs of Chablis and MdT is clearly one of the best. I would even say that the Foret bit of Montmain in warm vintages is another huge winner. Dauvissat well known but Tribut is a slightly-off-radar sleeper and still fairly priced on release, think the ship is starting to sail on that though.
 
I really like the Vaillons - I have been working pretty quickly through a case of the '18. Perhaps not the last word in steely typicity, but a lovely food wine, and at about £25 all in very fair value I think.
 
I see the Droin premier crus have gone up in price, with one well known merchant, from £21IB a bottle for the 19s to £25IB a bottle for the 20s. A stonking 19% increase in 12 months. Perhaps buying the basic Chablis makes even more sense now or back filling.
 
John Devlin said:
I see the Droin premier crus have gone up in price, with one well known merchant, from £21IB a bottle for the 19s to £25IB a bottle for the 20s. A stonking 19% increase in 12 months. Perhaps buying the basic Chablis makes even more sense now or back filling.
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Seems pretty inevitable that prices for good Chablis trend higher to follow CdB.

Backfill if you can but can't imagine there'll be bargains to be had for long. Just had a look at the BBX bids on my 2017 Les Clos. Paid £300/6 ib en primeur, currently bid at £550/6.

Basic Chablis is a good buy for sure.
 
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