Product Description
93+ points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
"The 2006 Chablis 1er Cru Côte de Léchet is a superb example of the vintage, offering up aromas of citrus oil, beeswax and oyster shell complemented by subtle hints of clear honey. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and incisive, its textural attack segues into a bright, chiseled mid-palate, concluding with a mouthwatering, intensely saline finish. More chiseled and tightly wound than its 2005 counterpart, this is a 2006 with a long future ahead of it, transcending the vintage's limitations."
Jancis Robinson
"The nerviest of these three 2006 Chablis premiers crus from Defaix (tasted alongside Vaillons and Les Lys). High toned and with a lightly reductive note, a little smoky, this would make a very luxurious aperitif. I could so easily imagine it on Christmas morning with smoked salmon for those who eschew bubbles. Notes of lime and honey act as counterpoints in this 'vibrating' wine with an impressively long finish. In view of its great age it's GV *good value*. 17/20 points."
Vinous Reverie Notes
Daniel-Etienne Defaix’s ancestors were already cultivating the vine in the sixteenth century at the Château de Faix near Avallon, not far from Chablis. Etienne-Paul Defaix installed the family as vignerons in Chablis during the eighteenth century. Today, Daniel-Etienne Defaix continues this long family tradition as he maintains a domaine of 26 hectares planted exclusively to Chardonnay and primarily in a series of vineyard sites classified 1er Cru. Daniel-Etienne calls himself “Le Dernier des Mohicans” (The Last of the Mohicans); in generations past, long aging in Chablis was more the rule than the exception, but today Danny is virtually alone in that practice. The wines are released to the market only after obtaining several years of bottle age at which point the market has the pleasure of having access to wines that more fully express the remarkable and unique terroir that is Chablis. Chablis 1er Cru Cote de Lechet: The Defaix vineyard holdings in the Cote de Lechet are placed at a 38 degree slope facing southeast. The majority of the Defaix vines are situated within the Clos des Moines parcel. In all, Defaix owns 3.5 hectares of this special 1er Cru which gives the most emphatic and pure expression of the minerality that is the mark of this unique and compelling appellation. As with the other 1er Crus, the vines are 45 years of age on average which results in consistently smaller yields and greater concentration. Perhaps the most complex of the trio of 1er Crus, Defaix promotes the Cote de Lechet as a fine accompaniment to all the white meats, citing specifically rack of veal, farm-raised chicken or how about risotto with black or white truffles.
