I'd like to take you through an un-planned dinner that turned out to be one of my all time favorites for two reasons: 1) it cost under $35, which included the wine and food & 2) if I wasn't running low on groceries, I would've never paired these two together.
Wine
2009 Jean Paul Droin Chablis Vaillons has been ignored in my wine fridge for weeks - and you can guarantee that'll never happen again! During my first sip, an energetic plethora of lemon zest, wet stone and citrus fruit danced together on the palate. It had great minerality as with most Chablis, thanks to the unique terroir. Not overly toasty but just the right amount of oak lingered. The richness flowed through the glass like saline or lamp oil. I thought back to an Aligote that I drank frequently last summer and associated the quenching characteristics. You just couldn't stop sipping.
Estate
The Droin family is among the oldest in Chablis - with five centuries of winemaking under their belt. Benoit Droin, the youngest in the fourteenth generation of Droins, took over in 1999 after studying oenology at the University of Dijon. He now holds the prestigious title of chief winemaker.
Vintage
Benoit Droin noted that 2009 "did not produce classic wines in the same fashion as 2007 or 2008 but they are rich, delicious, fresh and reasonably well balanced. They will be ideal for restaurants and for consumers who lack perfect storage conditions as they, as a very general rule, will not make for old bones anyway. They make me think of the '06s, which are already drinking well and the '09s will probably age along the same lines." - Allen Meadows, Burghound
Food
Drinking Chablis with food is tricky. One must consider the presence of 'funk', minerality, and oak. Taking into consideration the recommended drinkability, I happened to have just purchased pizza shells from the local Italian grocer. I've never thought that White Burgundy and pizza would work together, but I took a chance. In the back of my head, I thought "I have a young wine with fresh fruit and mineral notes - what would flatter this?" Pineapple and Sopressata pizza! Sweet pineapple with fresh buffalo mozzarella, fresh parsley, zesty Sopressata and red onion. I'm not one to mix regions (that is the #1 adage I took from living in Europe), but this worked! Talk about a gourmet value meal: Homemade pizza costs about $10, and this fabulous wine at only $25.99! I strongly urge you to set a case aside, especially with the warmer spring months coming up. An unbeatable value with premier cru quality - you can't afford to miss this when it comes to Burgundy.