2024 Jean-Paul & Benoit Droin - Chablis Montee de Tonnerre (750ml)

Among the seven premier crus in the Jean-Paul & Benoît Droin portfolio, Montée de Tonnerre is widely considered the most serious and age-worthy, a reputation that fits a domaine built on patience rather than trend. Benoît Droin, who joined his father in the cellar in 1999 and now runs the fourteenth-generation family estate, farms this site with the same principle he applies across all his vineyards: minimal intervention and close attention to the soil, letting each climat show its own character rather than a single house style.

Montée de Tonnerre sits on a west-facing hillside directly adjacent to Chablis's grand crus, sharing much of their structure and depth despite its premier cru status. Droin farms about 1.76 hectares of fifty-year-old vines across the Chapelot and Côte de Bréchain sub-sectors, where shallow Kimmeridgian marl and limestone, streaked with veins of blue clay and flecked with fossilized oyster shell, sit close to the surface. The wine is fermented and aged partly in oak, roughly thirty percent, and partly in stainless steel, then blended after several months on lees.

The nose carries flint, smoke, and citrus blossom, with orange oil and a trace of honey adding richness. The palate is powerful and tightly wound, layered with stone fruit and a saline, mineral edge that lingers through a long, structured finish built for extended aging.