We’ve just come across some excellent videos exploring the sub-regions and villages of Burgundy. It’s about as close as you can come to visiting them.
Today we turn to Chablis in our exploration of the sub-regions and villages of Burgundy. It’s about as close as you can come to visiting them.
In this series, we’ve covered Chassagne-Montrachet, Pugliny-Montrachet, Saint Aubin, Mersault, Pommard, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanée, Clos-Vougeot, Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-Saint-Denis, and, Gevrey-Chambertin.
Make sure you join our community to get the latest articles from the Wine Bites Mag as they come out. You’ll find all of our Burgundy related articles here.
There’s a quick refresher on the regions of Burgundy at the end of this post to help you place yourself within Burgundy and France as a whole.
Don’t miss the 🎥 with Bernard Raveneau below!
Onto Chablis …
Chablis is the northernmost region of Burgundy, and, consequently the coolest.
Mid-way between Beaune and Paris, the Chablis winegrowing region stretches over around 20 communes. Nestled among the valleys and wooded hilltops, the vineyards cover the hillsides running alongside the pretty Serein Valley. The vines sink their roots deep into the clay-limestone soil, drawing on them for their characteristic mineral aromas, to the delight of Chablis drinkers.
Here, Chardonnay reigns supreme. It is used for all Chablis wines and has made them famous around the world. The most highly prized among them is the wines classified Chablis Grand Cru, with its green-gold color and perfect balance between liveliness, dryness and acidity.
There are 3 other classifications.
Chablis Premier Cru wines. This appellation encompasses a wide range of aromas from the most mineral to the most floral.
Chablis wines are very dry, and stand out with their freshness and sophistication.
Petit Chablis are wines rich in aromas of white blossom and citrus and are light and full of life.
A Drinker’s Retro…perspective
Chablis is dominated by Chardonnay plantings.
Back in the early naughties, we were hoovering Chablis from the early 1970’s. When the Tsunami hit, wheelbarrows of Grand & 1er Cru’s were arriving from the auction houses at around $14 a bottle. By the time it receded, after everyone else had caught on, they were up at around $40 a bottle and still a bargain. Purity, complexity, amazing texture, lovely lines of acid were the hallmarks of these incredible wines. Testut et Fréres Grenouille featured! Such a great vineyard.
It’s wines like these that both inspire and excite!
While we were drinking Grand Cru and Premier Cru wines back then, today with dedicated work in the vineyard and winery we are seeing exceptional Chablis and Petit Chablis wines being produced.
Area Planted
The total area under production is 3,367 Ha. This is split into 4 classifications. Grand Cru, Premier Cru, Chablis, and, Petit Chablis.
Grand Cru
Chablis with seven officially delineated Grand Cru climats, covering an area of 247 acres (100 hectares), all located on one southwest facing hill overlooking the town of Chablis. There is one vineyard, La Moutonne, located on this hill between the Grand Cru vineyards of Les Preuses and Vaudésir that is considered an “unofficial” Grand Cru and it will appear on wine labels. However, the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO) does not recognize La Moutonne as a Grand Cru.
Area in production (2018):
1 hectare (ha) = 10,000 m² = 24 ouvrées.
100 ha.
Blanchot: 12.11 ha.
Bougros: 15.09 ha.
Les Clos: 26.71 ha.
Grenouilles: 8.74 ha.
Preuses: 11.13 ha.
Valmur: 10.62 ha.
Vaudésir: 13.37 ha.
Premier Cru
At the turn of the 21st century, there were 40 Premier cru vineyards in Chablis. In 2009, the official list was expanded to 89 vineyards. The names of many of these vineyards do not appear on wine labels because of an INAO allowance that permits the use of “umbrella names” – where smaller, lesser known vineyards are allowed to use the name of a nearby more famous Premier cru vineyard. Seventeen of the most well known “umbrella” vineyards are bolded below.
Premier Cru : Area under production (2018): 783 ha.
Mont de Milieu – Vallée de Chigot
Montée de Tonnerre – Chapelot, Les Chapelots, Pied d’Aloup, Sous Pied d’Aloup, Côte de Bréchain
Fourchaume – Vaupulent, Vau Pulan, Les Vaupulans, La Fourchaume, Côte de Fontenay, Dine-Chien, L’Homme Mort, La Grande Côte, Bois Seguin, L’Ardillier, Vaulorent, Les Quatre Chemins, La Ferme Couverte, Les Couvertes
Vaillons – Sur les Vaillons, Chatains, Les Grands Chaumes, Les Chatains, Sécher, Beugnons, Les Beugnons, Les Lys, Champlain, Mélinots, Les Minos, Roncières, Les Epinottes
Montmains – Les Monts Mains, Forêts, Les Forêts, Butteaux, Les Bouts des Butteaux, Vaux Miolot, Le Milieu des Butteaux, Les Ecueillis, Vaugerlains
Côte de Léchet – Le Château
Beauroy – Sous Boroy, Vallée des Vaux, Benfer, Troësmes, Côte de Troësmes, Adroit de Vau Renard, Côte de Savant, Le Cotat-Château, Frouquelin, Le Verger
Vauligneau – Vau de Longue, Vau Girault, La Forêt, Sur la Forêt
Vaudevey – La Grande Chaume, Vaux Ragons, Vignes des Vaux Ragons
Vaucoupin – Adroit de Vaucopins
Vosgros – Adroit de Vosgros, Vaugiraut
Les Fourneaux – Morein, Côte des Près Girots, La Côte, Sur la Côte
Côte de Vaubarousse
Berdiot
Chaume de Talvat
Côte de Jouan
Les Beauregards – Hauts des Chambres du Roi, Côte de Cuissy, Les Corvées, Bec d’Oiseau, Vallée de Cuissy
Chablis Village
The term Village applies to the wine made generally within the Chablis region.
There are a number of Chablis communes that produce village classification wines, including: Beine, Béru, Chablis, Fyé, Milly, Poinchy, La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne, Chemilly-sur-Serein, Chichée, Collan, Courgis, Fleys, Fontenay-près-Chablis, Lignorelles, Ligny-le-Châtel, Maligny, Poilly-sur-Serein, Préhy, Villy and Viviers.
Petit Chablis
Area under production (2018): 1,108 ha.
Most Common Varieties
White wines only – Chardonnay (locally known as « Beaunois »).
I suspect we will see increasing experimentation with Pinot as the climate warms.
Viticulture
Viticulture in Chablis follows similar lines to that in burgundy with close planted vines low to the ground. As in so many parts of the world we are seeing more and more growers shift to sustainable biological viticutlure with many switching to organics and biodynamics.
The region is prone to frost risk and it’s not uncommon to see smudge pots burning across the vineyards during the growing season.
Winemaking
Like every wine region of the world Chablis has been exposed to advances in modern winemaking technology, shifts in stylistic interpretations, and, preferences, and of course the impact of climate change.
The most significant areas of change have been in temperature-controlled fermentation, use of malolactic fermentation, use of oak, and, reduction in chaptalisation due to warmer riper vintages.
As you’d expect, those makers looking after their vineyards, achieving flavour ripeness early, able to pick early enough to retain natural acidity and judiciously apply use of oak are making exhilarating wines.
The devil in the detail with key elements including fruit handling to achieve the right levels of phenolic extraction, exposure to oxygen as juice, fermenting wine, and post-fermentation, use of wild yeast, lees contact, lees stirring, tank vs old vs new oak ratios, and time maturing pre-bottling.
Whilst depth, length, balance, complexity, freshness, and, development all play their part, it’s the texture of the great Chablis’ that sets them apart!
Detailed Map of Chablis
Chablis is the northern most region of Burgunyd, and, consequently the coolest.
Mid-way between Beaune and Paris, the Chablis winegrowing region stretches over around 20 communes. Nestled among the valleys and wooded hilltops, the vineyards cover the hillsides running alongside the pretty Serein Valley.
Click on any image to view full size map
Chablis Geology & Geography Explored
A tasting of the wines from Raveneau. Bernard Raveneau opens the doors to the famous Chablis estate he runs with his brother Jean-Marie, for a visit of the vineyards and the cellar.
The wines of Chablis with Lyne Marchive, winemaker in Chablis.
The Regions of Burgundy
The best bit of Burgundy is a thin strip running from North to South around 50km in length, to the South East of Paris
It’s split into three main regions, within each of these regions there are villages which have specific single vineyards planted in them to the varieties red varieties: Pinot Noir and Gamay, and the white varieties: Chardonnay and Aligoté, a lesser variety that produces some fun wines at more affordable prices.
The three main regions in the strip South of Dijon are:
- Côte D’Or – meaning the Golden Slope, derived from it’s original name, Côte d’Orient, East Slope, within which rest:
- Côte-de-Nuits – South of the city of Dijon and North of the town of Beaune famous for it’s Pinot Noir. The best known villages are: Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Nuits-St-Georges and Vosne-Romanée. 5% of Burgundy production including Chablis.
- Côte-du-Beaune – The area around and South of Beaune famous for Chardonnay including the 5 Grand Cru vineyards and many very good Pinot producing vineyards. The best known villages are: Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Mersault, Volnay, Pommard and Saint Aubin. 10% of production including Chablis.
- Côte-Chalonaise – Mixing more affordable Chardonnay and Pinot that can be of excellent quality. The villages of Rully, Mercurey and Givry producing their best wines.
- Mâconnaise – The least regarded of the main regions, still capable of producing some very good wines.
In addition to these, the two regions of Beaujolais, mostly producing Gamay, (at the South end of the Dijon Strip) and Chablis, mostly producing Chardonnay (between the southern part of Champagne and Dijon) are part of the Bourgogne wine region.
References
Chablis and Grand Auxerrois: the green gold of the Bourgogne region, bourgogne-wines.com
J. Robinson (ed) “The Oxford Companion to Wine” Third Edition pg 148-149 Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0-19-860990-6
(in French) CAHIER DES CHARGES DES APPELLATIONS D’ORIGINE CONTRÔLEES “PETIT CHABLIS”, “CHABLIS”, “CHABLIS GRAND CRU”
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