Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis Tête d’Or 2020

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Tête d’Or is sourced from 28 year old vines from a domaine-owned a south/southeast facing 3 hectare parcel at the foot of the Montée de Tonnerre 1er Cru in the heart of the Chablis appellation.

Grapes are manually harvested, pressed and macerated at cool temperatures for 7 days. Fermentation entirely in temperature controlled stainless steel. The wine is aged for 12 months in 80% stainless steel, 20% oak.

About Billaud-Simon

Domaine Billaud-Simon in Chablis is comprised of about 42 acres, encompassing four Grands Crus vineyards, including one acre in Les Clos; one acre in Les Preuses; 1.75 acres in Vaudésir; and .44 acre in Les Blanchots. The Domaine also owns four Premiers Crus vineyards, including Montée de Tonnèrre, Mont-de-Milieu, Fourchaume and Vaillons. In addition to its crus wines, Domaine Billaud-Simon makes a Chablis Villages “Tête d’Or”, with grapes harvested exclusively from the estate.

In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic wars, Charles Louis Noël Billaud returned home to Chablis and founded Domaine Billaud-Simon. There, thanks to his family’s holdings, he planted the first vines. Then, a little more than a century later in the 1930s, the Domaine’s vineyards were enlarged with the marriage of his descendant Jean Billaud to Renée Simon.

Located close to the Serein River, Jean Billaud’s son, Bernard, took over the estate until its acquisition by Domaine Faiveley in July 2014. Since then, Domaine Billaud-Simon is managed separately from Domaine Faiveley: It has its own vineyard, winemaking facilities and remains dedicated to uphold the same style of the wines while continually striving to improve their quality. Along with technical improvements in the modern winery, manual grape picking is increasingly being practiced for their Grands Crus and selected Premiers Crus.

The Chablis wines of Domaine Billaud-Simon exhibit elegance, balance and pure Chardonnay fruit. Delicious when young, they evolve beautifully with some ageing.

Faiveley purchased the Domaine in 2013, bottling, but, not making the 2013’s. The changes saw a shift to harvesting the fruit earlier–with better nerve and natural acidity–than would have been the case here under Bernard Billaud. Since the acquisition, the wines have gone from strength to strength.

The 2020 Vintage at Billaud-Simon

From Burghound:

Régisseur (estate manager) Olivier Bailly, who works under the direction of Jérôme Flous, the technical director for Faiveley, simply but enthusiastically described 2020 as a “super-vintage that is a bit better-balanced than 2019 due to lower alcohols. The winter and early spring was warmer than usual and quite dry. We did have several nights where temperatures descended to between -6 and -7° C but because it wasn’t especially humid, the vines suffered relatively little damage. The flowering was earlier than usual with a mid-point of around the 25th of May. The summer was dry and hot and some of the sectors with limited topsoil definitely suffered from hydric stress. Serendipitously though, there was a big storm on the 9th of August that dropped some 60 mm of rain, which frankly saved us as it was more than enough to jump start the final ripening process and add back some lost volume. We picked from the 27th of August to the 6th of September and brought in spotless and ripe fruit that averaged between 12.5 and 13.1% in potential alcohols. Acidities were also quite good as the post-malo pHs ranged from a low of 3.1 to a high of 3.27. Volumes were good and better than those we realized in 2019, which is to say between 43 to 44 hl/ha versus about 39 hl/ha in 2019. While it’s still too early to know how the 2020s are going to turn out, I would say that for the moment, I really like the way they’re developing. They’re certainly ripe but the alcohols are reasonable, there is good terroir expression and most importantly, the wines are very well-balanced. Color me optimistic regarding their potential.”

Where in the World are Billaud-Simon’s Vineyards?

All of the parcels at Domaine Billaud-Simon are planted within a two kilometre radius, on the left and right banks of the Serein, in the heart of this historical appellation. The Domaine currently counts four Grands Crus: Les Clos, Vaudésir, Les Preuses and Les Blanchots as well as four Premiers Crus: Montée de Tonnerre, Fourchaume, Mont de Milieu and Les Vaillons. It also produces wines from Petit Chablis and Chablis, including the “Tête d’Or”.