{"id":23609,"date":"2019-05-28T01:41:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T01:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=23609"},"modified":"2019-05-28T01:55:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T01:55:56","slug":"chablis-9-jean-paul-benoit-droin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/burgundy\/chablis-9-jean-paul-benoit-droin","title":{"rendered":"Chablis (9) Jean-Paul & Beno\u00eet Droin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Beno\u00eet Droin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beno\u00eet Droin is A fourteenth generation winegrower in Chablis. The fame of the domaine, which is now regarded as one of the very best in the region, is in large part down to the work of his father, Jean-Paul, who began working here in 1965 at the age of 14, built the domaine’s first winery in 1981, and retired in 2014. Beno\u00eet has been working here since 1999. Initially, he says he changed the blend of barrels, but since 2002 the only thing he changed was moving to native yeast ferments in 2013. But clearly, he’s on top of his game right now.<\/p>\n

I visited with him in his cellars. They have 26 hectares of vines altogether with some very smart holdings, including lots of the best premier crus on both left and right banks, as well as a range of grand crus.<\/p>\n

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Farming is not fully organic, but is sensitive to the environment. ‘My philosophy approaches the sensibility of organic,’ says Beno\u00eet, ‘but some things about it are not logical.’ He doesn’t use herbicides. ‘The minimum thing you have to do is plough,’ he says. ‘We work the soil to have renewal.’<\/p>\n

Elevage is a mix of barrel and stainless steel. ‘We use some small barrels but it depends on the terroir,’ he says. ‘We like the freshness and energy of the tank and the elegance of the wood in small quantity.’ For the last 6 vintages the ferments have all been native.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Beno\u00eet doesn’t believe in a long \u00e9levage, unlike many of his peers. ‘If you have to imagine what is the best you say long \u00e9levage,’ he says, ‘but I don\u2019t agree for Chablis. Don’t bottle too early, but don’t wait too long, to conserve the freshness and elegance. If I compare my bottlings of Chablis village it is always the first bottling that is freshest.’<\/p>\n

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He now uses DIAM5 and 10s to seal the wines, having moved away from natural cork.<\/p>\n

One of the interesting observations Beno\u00eet makes is that he thinks there are two different styles in Chablis, cold vintage and hot vintage, and these two styles have different directions of ageing.<\/p>\n