BILLAUD-SIMON: WINE, WHEN TO DRINK IT?

Wine , When is it ready for drinking … ?

A large number of my loyal customers have raised this question at some time, and they evidently expect a straight, clear, simple answer in all honesty.

Bernard Billaud-Simon

It is a generally accepted, and entrenched, idea that if wines are to be good they must be aged.
It is a mistaken idea which over the years has imposed itself upon amateurs of Fine Wines.

This view which would have one believe that it is on ageing « that wine becomes good … ? » is a fallacy which can no longer be accepted by wine drinkers without being given a frank explanation.

A fact to be remembered :

A wine that is not good when young will remain a poor wine throughout its existence .

The FRUIT of the GRAPE.

- Grapes harvested before fully ripe give green fruit. They yield an astringent, acid, harsh wine.
It will not become any better by ageing in the bottle.

- Rather the contrary, the sourness and acidity of the green fruit will accentuate on ageing.
The mineral separated from the fruit will lend itself to astringency and bitterness.

- Grapes that are harvested when too ripe will express heavy, unpleasant, stewed aromas.
Compared to an overripe pear, the wine will be reminiscent of wizened fruit and wilted flowers.

- A wine, whether young, adult or aged made from over-ripe fruit will only offer limp, indistinct notes,
and will lack life and identity with tired and even oxidized aromas.

The JUICE of the GRAPE.

- Like all fruit juices, grape juice when neglected, ill-handled by harvesting, equipment or the wine grower.... will mercilessly undergo the ravages of oxidation.

- It will commence its life as a future wine with an irretrievable handicap.

- Alcoholic fermentation (10 to 15 days) that is ill-controlled will burn the primary aromas.

- The wine will express itself on the alcohol and not on the fruit. In the palate it will be hot, « fiery », heavy with no finesse.

- When the natural sugars of the grape are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide, the temperature of the grape juices rises and can reach a fatal threshold for the primary aromas.

- Mastering this initial fermentation, for the wine grower, consists of identifying the proper vinification
temperature, of monitoring this temperature and controlling it using suitable technical means.

- Control over temperatures = balanced aromatic chain between fruit and alcohol, the complexity, finesse and elegance of the aromas.

- Malolactic fermentation (2 to 3 months). This consists of converting the malic acid into lactic acid while paying due heed to a tartaric acid balance. It is of overriding importance for the final settling in of the aromatic chain.

- Perfect acid mutation.

- A complete fermentation cycle.

- Impeccable surrounding hygiene.

Failing this, an earthy, pasty, muddled chain will develop that may even be soured (since lactic acid is volatile acidity) in which the fruit and earth mineral will suffocate and be destroyed giving strong bad tastes to the wine.

- Finally, a wine that has not had the benefit of lengthy raising on its fine lees (9 to 18 months) will express itself on the palate by lack of depth and thinness of taste.

- Whether young or old, the imperfections, acts of negligence, bad tastes will impair the wine throughout its entire life.

To be sought, for true, honest simple pleasure:

- A wine with dazzling youth, with flawless beauty.

- Which comes forth with its fruit at perfect maturity.

- Fruit drenched with sun, lively but not acid.

- The emotion of Spring freshness which invades the palate in a radiant display of fruit and flower.

- No sharpness. No bitterness. Ripe, tender and silky.

- Earth mineral, lying in wait in its youth.

- It imposes body architecture, matter and contributes towards equilibrium.

- It is the true backbone of the wine, carrying its youth, structuring and asserting it in adulthood and finally underpinning and dominating it when aged.

- To perceive this marvellous balance between earth and sun, the winegrower and his wine, is within everybody's reach. The olfactory senses like good sense are not deceiving. It is the force of evidence itself. The truth lies in the glass and in youth. The rest is natural development and not improvement.

Good wine, like everything living, expresses itself firstly in its youth with much generosity, high spirits, with no restraint.

At times it may appear somewhat exuberant... and so much the better for its subsequent development. (Care must be taken to ensure that vinification defects are not masked by this exuberant youth).

It then retreats into itself for a time, to better open out and become adult.

It is the perfect balance of fruit and mineral. Freshness and power in harmony.

It is the living, asserted duality of birthplace and climate, the winegrower's love and skill which fills your glass with light and fragrances.

For Chablis, the light is cold and crystalline, its cloak a pale golden yellow with green iridescent reflections.

The fruit expresses itself over a wide spectrum, from lemon to white peach, pear, pippin apple, also conjuring up yellow fruits with exotic emotions such as litchi, mango…

The earth mineral, deeply and intimately noble, gives measured surround to this magnificent bouquet of fruit and flower borne of France's Grands Terroirs and brings it up front where it lingers and lingers.

In Chablis, the iodine mineral accentuates the ethereal emotion of the wine. Under the roof of the palate it emphasizes its marine origins drawn from the depths of the sea.

This life phase in the history of wine is for me the greatest, most authentic offering of Nature.

It lies within the third dimension with depth, width and height.

It is sculpture in the round in which everything is expressed and is perfected:

Light, matter, volume, space.

The work of art is in evident equilibrium, in the image of the gods.

On ageing, like a candle... it is extinguished.

The cloak becomes heavier, more laden with time. Rich gold, but Chablis still keeps its green reflections.

The mineral feeds on the fruit. It increasingly preserves the fruit on hints of honey, cinnamon, quince, tobacco…

It becomes predominant asserting itself in scents from the depths of the soil.

The noise senses undertones of humus, meadow mushroom, tertiary aromas, benzene, turpentine, petroleum.

The whole is animal, foxy. Mid-palate freshness starts to fade but returns for the final finish on notes of lemon.

The plenitude and richness of soil and climate melt and merge, driven by the power of the tertiary.

At this stage of development, all wines tend to resemble one another, whether red or white, from one terroir, from one region to another.

Wines with no terroir have long since disappeared.

When tasted blindfolded, it becomes very difficult to identify the colour of the wine and its origins.

The red or white fruit is erased by the mineral.

Schools of vinification, cask or vat, resemble one another.

It is very complex even impossible through the mineral alone, in the absence of the fruit, to locate the history and origin of the wine.

Then, must we deprive ourselves of the best years of our wines…

Forget that they are made of fruits, flowers, aromas and fragrances, balance and harmony in a native whole, assertive of their birthplace…

Or, seek some other history, some other time which most often no longer has any meaning when the highly-coveted bottle is finally opened.

Live this moment which should be true happiness…

Or fall into confused melancholy brought on by general major disappointment because somewhere some intellect has overridden the desire to share a fine bottle. What a shame... What a waste !

This is why Domaine BILLAUD-SIMON focuses all its efforts, both human and technical in the vineyard as in the cellar, on raising wines that are ready to drink in their youth. When adult with well-balanced fruit and mineral. Structured for the tertiary.

Our wines grow on the finest Chablis terroirs. We raise them as the vintage requires to offer wine amateurs emotional veracity through the fruit and mineral.

To perfect this work and to sustain it faithfully and safely, we produce magnums (1500 ml), wax sealed in traditional manner.

Magnums are ideal for experiencing the tertiary of a wine.

I wish you most pleasant tasting.

Chablis, 30 March 2005.

Graph depicting a wine's development

A pyramid graph visualizes the three major phases in a wine's lifetime.

The base, the most generous in terms of space, the most outstretched, contains the full organoleptic richness of the wine and its terroir. It is the vintage which expresses itself with its grandeurs or weaknesses. It is orchestrated around freshness and youth. It is a symphony of fruit and flowers, the result of a year's work in the vineyard and in the cellar.

It is a marvellously good wine.

The core, the centre, the epicentre, equilibrium, everything merges into harmony and plenitude; perfect, masterly organization in a more concentrated space of fruit and flower, the mineral occupies its fit position. The architecture is laid, its truth predominates.

It is the full dimension of the work.

The apex, narrower and more concentrated does not have room for all, only those which can withstand time. It is then the mineral which stands out, protectively dominating over the fruit which it consumes inexorably. It is the age when sometimes it does not have much more to offer.

- 1 PETIT CHABLIS. Wine for pleasure and thirst. 15/18 months.

- 2 CHABLIS. Adult between 2/4 years.

- 3 CHABLIS Premiers Crus. Adult 4/8 years.

- 4 CHABLIS Grands Crus and Cuvées vieilles vignes. Adult 6/12 years.