2016 Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoit Droin Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru

The 2016 Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru is much more reticent than the Grenouilles and clearly has a sign saying "Don’t Touch for Five Years" hanging around its neck. The palate is well balanced with a saline entry, but again, this is backward and surly, very compact on the finish. Cellar required.

Pale yellow-green. Urgent aromas of white peach, soft citrus fruits and iodine. Silky on entry, then less fat in the middle than the Grenouille, communicating a wonderfully fine-grained texture without any impression of weight. This wine leads with its intense fruit right now but it's extremely young. The slowly mounting, detailed finish and impression of calcaire energy suggest that it will display more minerality with time in the cellar.

Here there is no reductive funk with its pretty, ripe and airy aromas of mineral reduction, white flowers, pear, apple and iodine. There is excellent size, weight and mid-palate density to the very rich and overtly mineral-driven flavors that really fan out on the sappy finish that also delivers fine length if not the same depth as the best here. That said more depth will almost certainly develop with a few years of bottle age. January 2018. www.burghound.com