Domaine Guy Robin et Fils - Chablis Grand Cru Valmur 'Vieilles Vignes' 2023

In the early 2000s, Marie-Ange Robin had a choice. Stay in Paris and pursue a successful career as a fine art dealer, or return home to Chablis and take the reins of the family winery. Her decision would not only change her family’s fortunes but also preserve a critical piece of Chablis history.

Domaine Guy Robin et Fils today is a winery reborn. Marie-Ange represents the fourth generation of vine growers in the family. It was her father Guy who slowly, parcel by parcel, built up the family estate; yet it is Marie-Ange who has brought this winery to a level of greatness for which it was always destined.

Marie-Ange remembers her parents planting the family’s vines in the late 1950s and 1960s, at a time when other defeated Chablis growers were leaving the village in droves, exhausted by the hard work (and repeated destructive frosts) of this northern wine region. But Marie-Ange’s parents persevered.

Because of her family’s efforts, Domaine Robin today claims the most premier and grand cru vineyard land (second only to neighboring William Fevre) – not to mention some of the oldest Chardonnay vines – in Chablis. And as a result, Robin Chablis across the board has a seductive, textural quality to it; they are unctuous, weighty, serious Chablis wines.

In short, there are few other estates that promise old-vine Chablis wines of such character and complexity, for such reasonable prices.

 Estate vines sit at the forest line, planted by the family in the 1950s and 1960s. Pure Kimmeridgian soils are called “millefeuille,” or manylayered, with white clay and fossilized oyster shells. Age of vines: 50-60 years. Winemaking: Pressed immediately, with juice held in tank for 24 hours to settle naturally. Fermented on indigenous yeasts in French oak barrels (10% new.) Aged just under one year in barrel. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.

 Aromas of lemon zest, spices, chalk dust, lime zest. Refined, vibrant, with a core of ripe white fruit.

Pairings: Regional goats’ cheese; chicken in mushroom sauce; seared ahi tuna or other rich, fresh fish