2019 Henri Costal Les Truffieres Chablis 750 ml

Henri Costal Chablis is a collaboration between the vaunted Domaine Jean Collet—a Grand Cru grower-producer with Chablis roots dating back to the French Revolution—and America’s preeminent wine sage, the trailblazing importer, merchant, and writer Kermit Lynch. The Wall Street Journal called their wines “beautifully balanced” and “worth searching out.” 

Well, look no further. 

Les Truffières comes at you like a middle linebacker, showing off weight and cut. It darts from taut to lush, with a lip-smacking orchard-fruit core and a clean, slicing acidity. It's more generous than anyone would rightly expect, showing the heft more typically associated with the Premier Cru vineyards to the south. 

Romain Collet, the scion of the Jean Collet family, has proven himself especially adroit at handling the warming conditions of this traditionally cold, sometimes inhospitable place. He makes this wine entirely in stainless steel tanks, preserving the freshness and brightness that characterizes Chardonnay from this remote locale. Romain finishes it with a yogic stretch-and-rest in foudres, the big well-worn oak barrels of popular imagination that allow the wine to mellow and breathe without flavoring it with toasted wood or imparting additional long-chain tannins. 

Kermit dug Costal’s vibe when he first visited the Collet crew over a barrel-tasting back in the early Aughts. They rolled out their first vintage in 2005. The excellent 2019 marks 15 straight years of upward mobility. We think it’s got the legs to go higher.