BILLAUD-SIMON: The Gold Standard of Chablis
We’re hardly surprised Chablis is having its moment again, and Billaud-Simon is at the center of it for very good reason: bright, dry, mineral-driven wines built on late-picked, old-vine fruit and barely any oak. These wines continue to captivate palates and the imagination.
Why Chablis, Why Now
Chablis has been having its time basking in the spotlight. Robb Report devoted its 2026 buying guide to Chablis, noting that even village-level bottlings can keep developing in the bottle for years, a claim normally saved for pricier Burgundy. Trade press has been paying attention for another reason, too. The Drinks Business reported in December 2025 that Chablis authorities raised yield limits after a run of difficult vintages, including a hailstorm that wiped out a large share of several Grand Cru sites the year before. This points to genuine scarcity, in other words, and not just a marketing story.
There’s also a value argument building. Cellars.com.au pointed out this past November that top Chablis Grand Crus often sell for what a basic village-level Côte d’Or white costs, calling it a gap between rank and price that serious drinkers are beginning to close. Vinous’ dispatch from the region in July 2025 described growers adapting to increasingly volatile vintages while holding onto the style that has generally distinguished Chablis from Burgundy’s whites, and Woodland Hills Wine Company summed up the appeal plainly: unoaked, high-acid Chardonnay remains one of the fastest ways to win over someone who’s had little affinity for the grape.
A House Two Centuries in the Making
Billaud-Simon’s ties to Chablis go back to 1815, when Charles Louis Noël Billaud came home from the Napoleonic Wars and planted the family’s first vines along the Serein River. Over 9 generations, the Billaud and Simon families expanded the domaine through a marriage in the 1930s and a modernization push under Bernard Billaud in the 1990s, installing new presses and fermentation equipment while leaving the vineyard practices largely untouched. In 2014, the domaine joined the Nuits-Saint-Georges-based Faiveley estate. What changed was ownership, not the day-to-day. Billaud-Simon still farms its own vines and runs its own cellar, and winemaker Olivier Bailly has kept the late-harvest habit that set the house apart long before he arrived.
Terroir and the Kimmeridgian Line
The domaine farms just under 17 hectares along both sides of the Serein River, planted entirely to Chardonnay on Kimmeridgian limestone rich in fossilized oyster shells, the same soil that runs beneath Champagne and nowhere else outside a narrow stretch of southern England. Billaud-Simon picks later than most of its neighbors, a habit that struck the new owners as unusual before they admitted it works. The vineyards began converting to organic farming in 2022 and received full certification in July 2025.
In the vineyard, everything is picked by hand at full ripeness, and sorted a second time once it reaches the winery. Vine age plays a meaningful role here. The estate’s average vine is around 50 years old, with the oldest plantings in Montée de Tonnerre pushing past 80. Several of the Grand Cru holdings are tiny to begin with, Blanchots amounts to less than a fifth of a hectare, Les Preuses barely more, so yields stay modest without much effort. Grapes go straight to a pneumatic press after harvest, then settle and macerate in the cold for several days before fermentation begins.
In the Cellar
In the cellar, fermentation runs slow, 2 to 3 weeks, on native yeast in temperature-controlled tanks, with malolactic conversion usually starting in December and finishing on its own schedule rather than being pushed along. Aside from a portion of oak reserved for the old-vine Mont de Milieu and Blanchots, the wines mature in steel, resting on their lees for just over a year, then racked twice before bottling in late autumn. Fining and filtration are kept to a minimum, a decision that shows up in the glass as clarity without stripping the wine of texture. The result, across the range, is a house style built on tension, not weight, wines that open with citrus and stone fruit in youth, hold their acidity for years, and only pick up honey and spice as they age.
The Wines: Four Grand Crus and a Flagship
Billaud-Simon holds parcels in four Grand Crus at its core, Les Clos, Vaudésir, Les Preuses, and Blanchots, along with four Premier Crus: Montée de Tonnerre, Mont de Milieu, Fourchaume, and Vaillons. In certain vintages, the domaine also bottles Grand Cru Valmur through trusted growing partners. Two wines anchor the range at opposite ends: Petit Chablis is the estate’s true entry point, grown on the outer plateaus outside the classified Kimmeridgian slopes, while Tête d’Or, blended from the best village parcels near Montée de Tonnerre, is the flagship, the wine that has represented Billaud-Simon’s house style for more than ten years.
The Whites of Chablis and the Côte d’Or
If Meursault or Puligny-Montrachet are already in your rotation, Chablis is worth reaching for as a counterpoint. The Côte d’Or’s white wines favor riper fruit and, in some vintages, a measure of new oak, giving wines with more weight and a rounder texture. Chablis, further north and grown on Kimmeridgian limestone the Côte d’Or doesn’t have, comes across tauter and saltier, letting acidity do the work that oak does elsewhere. Neither approach is better, they’re answering different questions about what Chardonnay can be, and tasting the two side by side is one of the more direct ways to understand the range Burgundy covers.
We’re glad to bring a select allocation of Billaud-Simon to PWX, spanning Petit Chablis all the way to four of the estate’s Grand Crus. Take a look at what we currently carry below.
Chablis Tête d’Or 2022
Decanter, 92/100
The flagship at village level, blended from the estate’s best parcels near Montée de Tonnerre, the clearest single expression of house style.
Lemon and lime lead the nose, joined by green apple, pear, and a hint of honey and white petals. Medium bodied and smooth on the palate, it holds good weight and balanced acidity through an extended finish touched with soft spice.
Les Vaillons Chablis 1er Cru 2022
Wine Spectator, 93/100
Chablis’s largest Premier Cru said to be its most important left-bank site, prized for elegance over power.
Grapefruit skin and apple open the nose, layered with barley sugar and citrus pith. Medium bodied, the palate is generous with fruit yet stays lean, carrying a chalky texture through to a crisp finish.
Valmur Chablis Grand Cru 2023
Tim Atkin, 94/100
Grand Cru Valmur is often said to combine the density of Les Clos with the finesse of Vaudésir.
Candied lemon and citrus rind open the nose, with orchard blossom and a stony minerality beneath. Medium to full bodied, the palate shows real richness, carrying firm acidity and fine tension through to a mineral finish that lingers.
Vaudésir Chablis Grand Cru 2022
Tim Atkin, 95/100
Grown in a natural amphitheater at the center of the grand cru slope, prized for aromatic clarity and floral lift beyond its immediate neighbors.
Acacia and lime blossom lead the nose, followed by vanilla and honey. Full bodied and broadly structured on the palate, it carries lively acidity through a finish marked by bitter citrus and a touch of lanolin.
Les Blanchots Chablis Grand Cru 2022
Jasper Morris, 95/100
The coolest and easternmost of the grand crus, ripening days behind its neighbors, which is why it’s the one cuvée here that takes on a touch of oak.
Peach and orange peel open the nose, joined by gentle spice from its share of oak and a touch of pale blossom. Medium bodied and understated on the palate, it shows lasting minerality and drive through a dry finish of impressive length.
Les Clos Chablis Grand Cru 2022
Jasper Morris, 94/100
Chablis’s most celebrated grand cru, the wine most collectors reach for first, and the benchmark the other six are measured against.
Lemon oil and warm bread open the nose, with clear honey, apple blossom, and oyster shell beneath. Full bodied and dense on the palate, it carries deep concentration and a mineral-driven freshness through a finish that stretches on and on.
For inquiries, send us a Viber message at +63 (977) 842 4819 or email us at retailandcorp@pwxchange.com.ph