Rosemary George's Directory of Chablis Producers

By Rosemary George

This short ebook comprises a select directory of producers of Chablis. Rosemary George MW provides a Who’s Who of more than 70 of the most interesting and significant producers of what she admits may well be her favourite wine. A diverse range of wines is produced in this small corner of Burgundy even though all wines are made from the same grape – Chardonnay. Each entry includes a description of the producer’s vineyards, vine growing and winemaking philosophy, along with notes on particular methods used, such as organic, biodynamic, natural wine production or HVE. The entries feature tastings of the producer’s signature wines and notes on the particular style of wines created. This handy little book will be useful to anybody buying wines from Chablis or visiting the region.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Académie du Vin Library
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781917084130

Rosemary George

Rosemary George spent nine years in the wine trade with The Wine Society, Louis Eschenauer (Bordeaux), H Sichel & Sons, Findlater Matta and Les Amis du Vin. In 1979 she became one of the first women to qualify as a Master of Wine. A freelance writer since 1981, she has written thirteen books, covering the Languedoc, Chablis, Tuscany and New Zealand. She is a contributor to various magazines including Decanter and Sommelier India.

Book preview

CONTENTS

Introduction

Who’s Who in Chablis

Chablis

Beine

Beru

La Chapelle Vaupelteigne

Chichee

Collan

Courgis

Fleys

Fontenay-Pres-Chablis

Fye

Ligny-Le-Chatel

Lignorelles

Maligny

Milly

Montallery

Poinchy

Prehy

Viviers

INTRODUCTION

Chablis is the most northerly region of Burgundy. It is commonly called La Porte d’Or de la Bourgogne and has been linked both historically and commercially with Burgundy for centuries. Yet in many respects Chablis is a very isolated, independent and individual vineyard area, more appropriately called by another less frequently used epithet, l’Ile Vineuse. The négociants of Beaune have played, and continue to play, an important role in the commerce of Chablis abroad, and some also own vineyards in Chablis, but they make little impact on the character of Chablis itself. So, the interest and appeal of Chablis is that of a small, isolated vineyard with its own traditions and idiosyncrasies, as well as a huge reputation.

On an early visit to Chablis, in 1981, Michel Poitout, Jean Durup’s chef de cave told me that one hundred years earlier, before the phylloxera crisis, there had been 40,000 hectares of vines in the Yonne, the department in which Chablis is located. In 1981 there were barely 3,000, of which Chablis accounted for a little more than half. Now, nearly 40 years later, there are 5,641 hectares in Chablis, with another 2,038 hectares covering the various appellations of the Yonne.

So what happened? It was fascinating to discover that the department of the Yonne had been a prolific producer of vins de comptoirs for the cafés of Paris and that its vineyards had included Clos de la Chainette, which is now reduced to a small plot in the suburbs of Auxerre, and once famous names such as Epineuil, Vézelay and La Côte St Jacques, which are now enjoying something of a revival in their fortunes. Chablis itself survived the ravages of phylloxera, as well as two world wars and rural depopulation, but only just. The adherence of its growers to the Chardonnay grape distinguished Chablis from the other white wines of the area, but climatic vicissitudes, with years of devastating frost, were enough to deter even the most optimistic and stubborn vigneron. In the mid-1950s the vineyards were so empty of vines that in the hard winter of 1956 people skied down the slopes of Les Clos, now the source of one of Chablis’ most distinguished wines and some of the most valuable land in the area.

Wine writers are often asked that perplexing question: what is your favourite wine? My usual quip by way of reply is: the wine in my glass at the moment. But if I am forced to make a more serious and considered answer, it has to be Chablis. I have realized to my astonishment that I have been visiting Chablis and drinking Chablis regularly for forty years and I have never tired of the wine. It defies description. There are many Chablis, as many as there are wine growers. The Chardonnay grape grown on limestone and clay, the defining Kimmeridgian soil, makes wines with flavour, complexity and depth. Young Chablis is pale straw-coloured with a hint of green; it has dryness and bite, with a firm backbone of acidity, but should never taste harsh, green or tart. As it ages, it develops the characteristic gout de pierre à fusil, the mineral flavours of stony gunflint, which is the traditional description of mature Chablis. Chardonnay produces so many fine wines in so many parts of the world but, for my taste buds, Chablis remains unique, and quite unlike a Chardonnay from anywhere else, especially when it is allowed to age in bottle, for there is an intriguing chameleon quality about Chablis. As it matures, it develops flavours which may lead you to believe that it has been aged in wood, when on the contrary the wine has not been near a stave of oak.

While Petit Chablis and Chablis make enjoyable bottles when drunk in their youth, the grands and premiers crus more than repay bottle ageing. On more than one occasion somebody has proclaimed to me that they don’t like Chablis, saying, ‘It’s boring,’ to which my reply is, ‘Have you ever drunk a mature Chablis?’ The answer is invariably no. Chablis in its youth has a fresh, fruity acidity, before going into a sulky adolescent phase when it is about eighteen months or two years old, often coinciding with its arrival on our wine merchants’ shelves and its imminent consumption, when it can seem inharmonious, awkward and closed. Instead of drinking it straight away, it is best to forget about it and leave it to mature in bottle. In five or ten years’ time it will more than amply reward your patience, with depth of flavour and a potential for longevity which exceeds that of its nearest rival, the white wines of the Côte d’Or. Fine Chablis should always have elegance and a steely backbone that is cushioned by rich fruit and mineral flavours, with a subtlety that defies description.

Chablis is not just one wine. Within the appellation there are four categories, in ascending order, Petit Chablis, Chablis, premier cru and grand cru. The premiers crus now comprise 79 named vineyards, some of which appear on a label much more frequently than others, and then there are the seven grands crus, as well as the anomaly of La Moutonne. The historical heart of the appellation is focused upon the town of Chablis and a couple of the nearest villages, Milly and Poinchy, but the vineyards of Chablis cover twenty communes over a relatively compact area. However, within that small area there are numerous small differences in terroir, aspect and microclimate, all of which contribute to the infinite subtleties of flavour in the wines. Of course there is also a human element: each wine grower gives something of themselves to their wine, which makes it different from their neighbour’s Chablis.

There are many old established estates in the heart of Chablis, but I also wanted to include the several new estates, the people who made their first wines in this century. There have not been dramatic changes, but a quiet and constant evolution, with developments in both the vineyards and wine cellars, as Chablis has moved with the twenty-first century.

However, it is noticeable that the new generation has much broader horizons than the parents, whose view of things was limited to the hillsides of Chablis and the banks of the Serein. In contrast, the new generation has travelled and seen other vineyards and brought its experience back to Chablis. Despite this greater exposure to the outside world, Chablis remains very much Chablis, its own place and its own wine: that is its appeal and the reason that I am drawn back to it so frequently.

The directory that follows features a selection of my favourite producers of Chablis. It is taken from my book The wines of Chablis and the Grand Auxerrois, a comprehensive study of the region and its winemakers. That book includes far more information on the history of the region, a detailed explanation of the classifications, tasting profiles for the various crus and thorough explorations of the work of vigneron and winemaker as well as an evaluation of the business side of Chablis. It also provides producer profiles for the neighbouring region, the Grand Auxerrois, vintage assessments and thorough appendices. For details on where you can get your copy please turn to the end of this book.

WHO’S WHO IN CHABLIS

Throughout Burgundy a wine grower may own vineyard land in more than one village; you will therefore find them listed according to where they have their cellars. Thus, the list includes villages such as Montallery, which does not feature in the appellation, but where there are cellars.

CHABLIS

La Chablisienne

www.chablisienne.com

La Chablisienne, the cooperative of Chablis, was founded in 1923, at a time when the market for Chablis was in a state of crisis. Quite simply, the growers were unable to make a living from their wine. Today, the cooperative is responsible for about a quarter of the production of Chablis. Its 250 members own 9.20 hectares of grands crus, the sole omission being Valmur; 72 hectares, representing 9 per cent, of the prem­iers crus, but perhaps surprisingly no Vaudevey; 741 hectares (20 per cent) of village Chablis from all over the appellation and 28 per cent of Petit Chablis, with 309 hectares. Some members also have vineyards in the other nearby appellations of the Grand Auxerrois, and as the cooperative is legally obliged to take a member’s entire crop, it is no longer devoted to white wine alone. There are three organic growers, enabling the cooperative to produce a Petit Chablis and a Chablis. The total currently amounts to some 1,300 hectares. Previously a member’s land was bound to the cooperative for twenty-five years, but that was shortened recently to ten years.

Where once La Chablisienne focused its efforts on selling wine en vrac to the négociants of Chablis, the Côte d’Or and elsewhere in France, it now concentrates on sales in bottle with the name La Chablisienne or La Cave des Vignerons prominently displayed on the label. Some sales, always in bottle, are ‘own label’. For example Marks & Spencer has been a customer for 30 years. These days the director is Damien Leclerc, who has previously worked for Boisset in Nuits St Georges. Hervé Tucki, whose father, Jean-Michel, was a previous director, was the public face of the cooperative, its ambassa­dor, for a number of years until his retirement in 2021. Vincent Bartement is the winemaker.

Vincent gave me my first taste of 2018 Chablis, in October 2018, with a wine from each level of the appellation, beginning with Petit Chablis, and then Montmains with more weight, and finishing with Château de Grenouilles, which has taken on some buttery aromas with nice weight. He talked about his methods. The cooperative defines the picking programme and collects