PRE ARRIVAL OFFER: DENIS RACE CHABLIS
The Domaine Denis Race cellar is just on the outskirts of the small Chablis village and very close to the 1er Cru of Montmains. Their office is on the corner of Rue Monts-Mains and Rue des Butteaux! Race has and impressive 5 ha of 1er Montmains, including 1 ha of 55yo vines in the Butteaux sector.
In between the parallel hills of Montmains and Vaillons, they have well-sited AC Chablis vines and their Petit Chablis almost adjacent to, and SW of Butteaux. Apart from the sunnier 1er cru of Mont de Millieu on the right bank, all their vines are SW and on the left bank.
The cellar is pristine and the impressive small rows of glistening steel tanks are a good sign the no oak is used here. God help anyone who makes a mess or puts something in the wrong spot in this cellar! Claire and Marine Race run the family operation with their parents Laurence and Denis playing a strong but diminishing role.
The 2024’s are bright, ripe, deep and in the fresh, crisp, “ocean-breeze” Chablis style. Claire says the yields were 50% down, perhaps helping add flavour and density.
Note: Wines are due June 2026
2024 Denis Race Chablis AC
If I tasted this wine blind I’m sure I would pick it as a Chablis. With the yields reduced by 50% the vines filled the berries with more concentration of flavour. It has more fleshiness than the 2023, but still has the Race signature of racy and vibrant freshness with the salty “sea spray” character. It has impressive purity, chalky but elegant texture with a “dancing” acidity.
Claire Race has done well here, with the “direct” and youthful vigour accented by gentle nuances of honeysuckle, lemon pith and beeswax.
2024 Denis Race Chablis 1er Cru Montmains
This 1er cru is textbook Chablis, and will age well for 5 years. The Montmains 1er Cru is the heart of the Race family’s estate, with 4 ha of mature vines and 1 ha of 55yo vines across the 3 famous lieu-dits of Montmains proper, Foret and Butteux. Butteaux - gives the wine a broad-base delivering weight and structure and the Forets adds softness and richness; and Montmains proper - credited with the distinguished minerality and according to Jasper, adds a roasted hazelnut nuance.
The vines for this wine have an average age of 33y. "Vinifying the grapes together from these different parcels produces a dry and deeply-flavoured wine with intense aromas and an ageing potential of 8 years" according to Race. This 1er cru shows a lot of typicity bringing the trademark Chablis minerality, with fruity and floral aromas, producing a dry and deep-flavoured wine. It’s the most “electric” and vibrant of any Race Montmains we have purchased to date.
2023 Denis Race Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons 2nd Tranche
Vaillons is the parralel slope just to the NW of, and close to Montmaines. "Wines from Vaillons should be lovely, classic and elegant with both vivacity and power" according to Jasper Morris, and this wine is exactly that. "Typically the most incisive Chablis 1er Cru, this is a bone dry wine with the hallmarks of fine Chablis with its sea spray, rocky / mineral character.” The Race family say that this Vaillons is a smooth and full-bodied wine with very fruity and tender notes. It’s fruiter and fuller than Montmains.
