93-95pts Neal Martin, Vinous
The 2020 Chablis Vaudésir Grand Cru has an almost clinical bouquet, wonderfully defined, with superb salinity and mineralité. The focused palate is citric and tensile, and the salinity gets the saliva flowing. Classic Chablis through and through. This will be an exceptional Vaudésir.
94pts William Kelley, Wine Advocate
The 2020 Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir is charming and enveloping, wafting from the glass with aromas of crisp peach, pear, hazelnut, clear honey, white flowers and beeswax. Full-bodied, layered and satiny, with racy acids and a sensual, charming profile, it concludes with a long, saline finish.
JEAN PAUL & BENOIT DROIN: NEW BENCHMARK OF CHABLIS
Several vintages ago, we were ready to christen Domaine Jean Paul et Benoit Droin the newest benchmark Chablis. The entire staff is now giddy to see these wines arrive each and every year, and our locker members at Art of Cellaring gobble the wines up quickly. William Kelley of Wine Advocate has joined in the praise, writing that the estate "One of the reference points for the region, Benoît Droin's immensely dependable wines are among the most consistent in the region." Droin simply outclasses everything in its price for both village and cru wines. The estate revels in an uncanny and immensely attractive style. Its combination of early picking for freshness and razor sharp acidity is counterbalanced by a mixed elevage that daringly (for Chablis!) incorporates a bit of new French barrique. Please don't take that as a veiled attempt to warn you of an ominous and imposing oak influence here. The oak on the higher end wines is Grace Kelly class and will be mostly unnoticed by tasters. It provides a subtle patina of spice and polished depth of character. The village wine matches fresh cut, crisp apple with alluring lees notes of graham cracker and faint toast. At 12.5% alcohol it's a last bastion of classic, low alcohol French wine, let alone Chablis. The Vaillons is a slightly reductive, but surprisingly concentrated edition of the cooler 2021 vintage. The Vaudesir is where the house style achieves Nirvana with its Yin-Yang of taut zip and dense mid-palate texture that drips with pulverized oyster shell minerality. - BRANDON KERNE, MASTER SOMMELIER
