2022 Samuel Billaud Chablis Les Fourneaux 1er Cru
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Tasting notes
Bottled November. Palish lemon colour, a touch of wet wool, more discreet nose. All in white fruit, slightly lactic flesh behind, just enough minerals, and a little more persistent than you first think. Drink from 2026-2032. Tasted Jun 2024.
Critic scores
Jasper Morris MW, Inside Burgundy
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
The 2022 Chablis Les Fourneaux 1er Cru has a slightly more austere bouquet than Billaud's other Premier Crus: crushed stone, smoke and touches of grilled walnut. Again, this has superb delineation. The palate is taut and fresh, quite sapid and lively. If I must quibble, it doesn't deliver the knockout complexity on the finish like the other cuvées. Still, this is a superb Fourneaux.
The 2022 Chablis 1er Cru Fourneaux is showing particularly well, opening in the glass with notes of crisp stone fruits, white flowers, oyster shells and iodine, followed by a medium to full-bodied, satiny and concentrated palate with excellent depth at the core, racy acids and a saline finish.
Tank sample, unoaked. More mineral than the straight Chablis and with a more marked creamy lees aroma as well as a ‘green’/herbal citrus lift. Not a huge step up from the Chablis, perhaps, at least not compared with the difference in price, but there’s more stony/mineral character here and it’s a little more persistent, with a touch of spice on the finish, and needs at least another year in bottle to be more expressive. So perfectly dry. (JH)
About the producer
Samuel Billaud started making wine under his own name in 2009, but he is one of the most experienced producers in Chablis, having made wine in the region since 1985.