La Chablisienne, Chablis, Burgundy wines

Chablis is located about twenty kilometres from Auxerre in northern Burgundy. This village of about 2 500 inhabitants is famous for its white wine, unique all over the world.

The genuine Chablis wine is produced in Chablis and surroundings, Chablis vineyards including twenty villages and hamlets. Like the greatest white wines of Burgundy, Chablis wine is produced from only one grape variety: the Chardonnay. The wines are planted on slopes, on each bank of the river "Serein". The sub-soil, the famous Kimmeridgian, consists of marls as well as marly limestone.

In order to marvel at these wines cultivated like gardens, you just have to climb up one of the hills surrounding the village. From the small wood of "Les Clos" area, you'll enjoy the panoramic view on the vineyards, with, on the foreground, the seven plots of the Grands Crus, the finest jewels of Chablis. Many footpaths lead to the wines and enable you to immerse yourself in the vineyard landscape before the wine tasting.

Chablis vineyards extend over twenty villages and 11 614.2 acres. This terroir is the result of a delimitation of the INAO (National Institute for the French Appellations) which defines four different appellations:

• Petit Chablis over 1 71.89 acres harvested mainly on the plateaux.
• Chablis over 7724.66 acres on the slopes.
• Chablis Premier Cru over 1882.98 acres on the slopes facing south-west or south-east.
• Chablis Grand Cru over 249.581 acres, harvested in the Chablis village, right blank of the river "Serein". Most of the slopes face south-west.
  

The sub-soil gives to Chablis wines a unique character. Its origin goes back to the formation of Paris basin. During the Mesozoic era, the sea abbs and flows accumulated different types of sediment in a small hollow which extended and became a large sedimentary basin. The superposition of the different geological strata formed an alternated structure "in pile of plates". The different geological phases are :

• Kimmeridgian (from – 146 to – 141 millions years) with alternate marls and marly limestone. It corresponds to the appellations of Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru and Chablis Grand Cru.
• Portlandian (from – 141 to -135 millions years) is the terroir of Petit Chablis appellation.
  

Chablis wines reflect the terroirs they come from. It gives them their extraordinary mineral touch, as well as a remarkable aromatic fineness and a perfect limpidity.

Chablis has a continental climate. The four seasons are very different: hard winters, springs with frost, hot summers and autumns bringing ideal conditions to mature the grapes perfectly.

Enjoy watching this 24 minutes long film, released by an Australian channel, presenting « La Chablisienne » and the Burgundy region. For your comfort, we have divided it in six chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of our passion. 

Origins of Chablis, Burgundy		From the vine to the cellar		Tasting Chablis

Regional Appellations		Kir and surroundings		Burgundy, Marc and History