For value-for-money white Burgundy, look to Chablis and Domaine Samuel Billaud

Fans of white Burgundy in search of great value should look to France’s Chablis region, with its more than 5,000 hectares under vine and no fewer than 40 premier cru vineyards and seven grand cru. This being a cool climate, wine styles are elegant, with a lean structure, restrained fruit and racy acidity. Climate change and warmer growing conditions have, however, brought about fruitier wines, with higher sugar levels and softer acidity.

Quality is determined by harvest conditions and 2015 was a good year in Chablis. A hot summer with little rain brought an early harvest and grapes reached optimum ripeness by early September, with balanced sugar and acidity levels. These youthful wines are already drinking well.

One producer worth seeking out is Domaine Samuel Billaud, its wines being among the best expressions of Chablis, showing purity and a sense of place with little winemaking intervention and oak usage. Samuel Billaud’s family has been making wine since 1815, and he was winemaker at the family business, Domaine Billaud-Simon. In 2009, however, he bought four hectares of that vineyard and established his own operation.

Production is limited to about 45,000 bottles a year, and Billaud practises lutte raisonnée, a form of sustainable agriculture using minimal amounts of chemical additives. The winery is gravity-fed to minimise pump­ing. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation for the village wines is in small stainless-steel tanks, while the premier cru and grand cru wines are fermented in 450- to 600-litre barrels, of which 15 per cent are new. Wines are aged for an average of 10 months.