2017 Louis Latour Simmonet-Febvre Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons 750 ml

Riches Await in Simonnet-Febvre  

If you’re not familiar with Simonnet-Febvre, let us introduce you with this, our first-ever Chablis offer from Louis Latour. Any chance for success in Chablis depended on exactly where grapes were grown, and if they were still on the vine after the harrowing night of August 31, 2015 when the path of a sudden hailstorm wreaked havoc across the region. So it is extremely fortunate that we’re even able to offer today’s 93-point “solid” 2015 Simonnet-Febvre from Vaillons—the best value Premier Cru Chablis from the vintage, according to Wine Spectator’s former European Bureau Chief, James Suckling.

Vaillons is a Premier Cru site that Burgundy expert Rajat Parr calls the “most important” Left Bank Chablis Cru. We tasted this Vaillons in a vaulted cellar during our visit to Domaine Louis Latour, which has owned Simonnet-Febvre since 2003. Hosted by managing director Jean-Philippe Archambaud, we learned that Simonnet-Febvre was among the lucky few producers whose Vaillons vines survived the abrupt, damaging hailstorm that swept through the region on the night of August 31. Showing us the span of his arms, “We missed it by this much,” he said, before filling our glasses with the silver-streaked, light-lemon-gold Vaillons.

After the first sip, we knew there was no way we’d be going home without an allocation. How good is it? It is a supremely vivid wine: Imagine an orchard after a cool rain, wet stones under foot, and just-picked lemons, apples, and pears doused in honey with just a hint of wild white pepper—that’s this 2015 Vaillons in the glass, which boasts the richness and weight of the warmer vintage.  

In his report “Chablis Gets the Côte de Beaune Treatment from Mother Nature” published in Vinous, Stephen Tanzer described the best Chablis wines from 2015 as “clean, pure and rich, favoring stone and citrus fruits over minerality.”

The Simonnet-Febvre is right in the pocket with ample body and texture. It’s a lovely wine that we’re enjoying on its own to accompany dinner-prep, maybe with a bit of crusty French bread, and a mix of cow, sheep, and goat cheeses (and a hunk of honeycomb), but it shines with chicken in a mustard-tarragon cream sauce, and of course, oysters—better yet, oysters Rockefeller.

If this is the only Premier Cru Chablis you buy from the 2015 vintage, it won’t be in vain. Simonnet-Febvre is a Chablisien gold-standard, and a guarantee on the label that you’ll be very happy with what’s in your glass. At $35.99 on 1-5 bottles, $33.99 on 6-11, and for those of you eyeing cases, just $31.99 each—it is a fraction of the price of other notable Chablis, and the best value Premier Cru bottle from 2015 that we have offered this year.