Petit Chablis Les Vignes Sur Les Clos, Billaud, Samuel 2024

This is from a plot just above Les Clos, and it punches well above its weight. Lively, bright, stony and mineral with good texture and weight. This shows depth and vitality. Very fine.

Yields were a very modest 20 hl/ha. Pale in colour, beautifully lively, such racy energy in Samuel’s wines. Dancing on a head of a green pin, stones take up the finish. Tendrils of something riper, but this will please purists a lot. Long and classy. Drink from 2026-2027. Tasted Jun 2025. ****

Understated, showing bright aromas of lemon peel and green apple on the initial attack, leading into a lively, fresh texture, light body and moderate length. The grapes are from the top of Les Clos in the lieu-dit Sur Les Clos, from vines planted in 1976. Although there was a bit of hail here, Billaud managed 20 hl/ha, producing a refreshing wine perfect for drinking on release. (Drink between 2026-2030).

50-year-old vineyard above Les Clos Grand Cru, planted by Samuel Billaud’s father. Unoaked but spends a good 6 months on lees in tank before bottling.This has taken on more depth and richness since I tasted it a year ago. Still immensely fresh and pure, intense and precise but the texture and weight have increased with this extra year in the bottle, and there is no reason to think it won’t continue to gain in complexity even if it is really à point now. Starting to show a hint of cedar and the stony-minerality becoming a little darker too. GV for such a fine wine – the appellation giving little indication of its quality. Better than many a premier cru Chablis. Drink 2026-2030.