2024 Jean-Paul & Benoit Droin - Chablis Mont de Milieu (750ml)

Benoît Droin, the fourteenth generation to steward this four hundred year old Chablis family, tailors his winemaking to each individual site rather than applying one house style across the range. Since taking full control of the domaine from his father, Jean-Paul, he has scaled back new oak use, tightened yields, and leaned on native yeast fermentation, an approach that lets each premier cru and grand cru express its own personality rather than a uniform Droin signature.

Mont de Milieu is often called the sunniest climat in Chablis, a south-facing slope on the right bank of the Serein where Kimmeridgian limestone lies beneath a topsoil scattered with clay and limestone pebbles. Droin farms a small parcel of roughly fifty-year-old vines here, yielding only a few thousand bottles each vintage. The wine is fermented with native yeasts and aged partly in stainless steel tank and partly in barrel, with oak making up around a quarter of the blend, a treatment Benoît reserves for this particularly ripe, generous site.

True to its warm exposure, the wine is opulent and open, with aromas of white peach, apricot, and orange blossom layered over a base of honeyed richness. The palate is silky and full, its ripeness held in check by bright acidity and a firm, understated mineral thread running through the finish.