Château Grenouilles, great wine of Chablis, France

Tasting a Château Grenouilles wine that has attained a certain maturity gives you an inkling of the deep-rooted genius of Chablis's great terroirs. It amounts to a unique experience of "emotion with a mineral touch". During the year following the harvest, Grenouilles is definitely the most expressive wine in our cellars. On the nose, the aromas are already clearly defined. Its taste is clean and substantial, with a richness of flavours deriving from perfectly ripened berries. The mineral edge is there, but comes through as the merest filigree. The finish is sketchy as yet, but the work of art is taking shape. Two or three years after harvesting, the wine reaches an apogee of fruitiness: everything has become more complex and more subtle, the flavours are less tropical, the zest of the citrus is rounder and the mineral edge comes through. In the mouth, the knit of the wine is more apparent... Five years after harvesting, the fruit flavours have given way a little as a more complex bouquet comes to the fore. Much fleshier on the palate now, the wine displays a subtle paradox between a lovely mouthfeel and real potential for development. Eight, ten, fifteen years after harvesting, the nose becomes forthright and pure, intense and complex, with a panoply of fresh fruit, light flora scents, touches of gentle spice, citronella, verbena, honey, wax... and of course that decidedly mineral edge. In the mouth, the wine is truly harmonious, very well-balanced, remarkable for its pure elegance and finesse, with an unbelievably long mineral finish. The pallet of aromas is extremely wide, changing with the weather and the seasons. Ultimately comes the full blooming of the wine -in the case of really great vintages, years and years after the harvesting: this is the quintissentially pure Chablis, its balance perfect, a great joy, an unsurpassable experience to relive...