#7 PRIMA’s ’24 for 24’ Best Wines Of The Year

Wine Country: France

Wine Subregion: Burgundy

Wine Sub-subregion: Chablis

New to PRIMA (and to the United States!), last year’s debut 2022 vintage marked the discovery one of the most exciting young Chablis producers we’ve seen in years! And you agreed! We haven’t seen Chablis fly out of here so fast in years! Orion is the brainchild of the intrepid Léa Schaller, a musician who decided to trade her blossoming career in Paris for a life in the Burgundian countryside when her father retired from farming the family farm in 2019. For two generations previous her family had sold the grapes from the ten hectares they owned around the village of Préhy to the giant La Chablissienne co-op, but Lea, when it was her turn to take over the property, decided to, instead, throw herself headlong into earning a viticultural and winemaking degree in order to eventually bottle her family’s grapes instead of selling them off. She built a small winery down the street from Prehy’s famous church and set about reimagining the family vineyards in the Petit and Chablis AOCs and, starting with the 2019 harvest, creating her own wines. Naming the domaine after a Metallica song, she designed the label to match the tattoo on her arm, a homage to her family name Schaller which, in old Alsatian German (the family’s roots), refers to the village bellringer who announced the end of each day and bringing the local owls from their roosts for the night. With vineyards in three sites in three appellations and only two wines to make, this is a micro-estate in every sense of the word. Lea takes an inordinate amount of care both in the vineyard and in the cellar and, if her first releases are any indication, she clearly values purity and precision of above all else. The Chablis AOC vineyard was planted in 1978, and Lea ferments the fruit on its indigenous yeast and ages it in stainless to preserve its native zing and nice lemony, citrus edge. As lovers of older school, leaner versions of Chablis, we loved the pristine clarity of its fruit which marries Chablis’ native petrichor-mineral with some beautiful richness and panache. It is, indeed, a very fine 2023. In only its fourth vintage, we couldn’t help but be really, really impressed! Those who lament the demise of the Chablis style of yore will love this wine; a reminder that Chablis used to be the call with oysters and other fare from the raw bar as well as richer fish and poultry dishes. Drink now or over the next five to seven years. What a wonderful addition to our Chablis set, Lea!