Who are we ?
Since 1923 at Chablis in Burgundy, the meticulous care of the vine-growers working together under the banner of La Chablisienne has given birth to wines whose magnificence is amplified by the passage of time. These wines, coming from a mosaic of "climats", or vineyard plots, provide a pallet of emotions marked with a truly mineral touch.
Chablis, half way between Paris and Beaune, forms the real gateway to Burgundy ’s treasure-house of wines. The vineyards, lying on both sides of the River Serein, cover 6,800 hectares (some 17,000 acres) in 20 villages. Of the 4,700 hectares in production, La Chablisienne alone represents nearly 25% and produces every one of the Chablis appellations.
The production of the whole vineyard reaches 250 000 hectolitres per annum. Chablis is therefore thefirst producer of white wine in Burgundy. The wines are made from a single grape variety, the Chardonnay which finds in the soil of Chablis the matter for its superb fineness.
Our winery groups nearly 300 winegrowers to produce the great white wines of Chablis. These wines reflect the utmost care our winegrowers devote to the cultivation of their vineyards and the commitment our winemakers bring to revealing the heart and soul of the wines. It is this subtle harmony between the grower in the vineyards, the technical advisor and the winemaker which bestows on our wines their much sought-after distinction.
Chablis Spirit
Could someone have dropped some pebbles in the wine ? Over the last few years the expression “minerality” has worked its way into the vocabulary of sommeliers and wine-lovers. And with this disclosure we have seen a reappearance of aromas seeming to come straight out of the rock, accompanied by a forgotten taste of terroir. Indeed, following their “liberation” these characteristics are now finding their way into wine cellars and our consciousness. So what is this “minerality” ? Hidden behind this neologism with cloudy contours we find a combination of sensations : olfactive, gustative and tactile. Sensations that can be discovered during a tasting of Chablis ; the archetype of “mineral” wines.
This affair is the cause of much commotion in the small world of œnologists and wine-lovers. Since the 1970’s, wine tasters from around the world have thought that agreement was reached regarding a common language : to each his own perception, but a shared vocabulary for all. Resulting in precise, yet universal terms to describe an aroma or a bouquet. Œnology even went so far as to “collar” certain difficult-to-tag sensations using chemical formulas with polyphenols, aldehydes or esters.
And then, without anyone really knowing when or how, a mysterious word burst into the nicely organised lexicon, a hazy sort of term without boundaries that no-one, until now, has been able to define : minerality.
Tense and vigorous
The word “minerality” does not appear in any of the ancient tomes about wine. So what meaning do we attribute to this term that does not exist ? And where should look in order to unearth this minerality ? A few tasters believe to have caught a hint of it in some red wines.They are still looking… This is because the clues are far more numerous in white wines. The best sommeliers, working as sleuths, have found traces of it by following the Loire upstream then branching off towards Burgundy and Alsace. They found its tracks in Muscadet, Sancerre, Chablis and Riesling. But the quarry does not allow itself to be caught that easily. It requires a meticulous examination to identify the telltale aromas : flint, gunflint, chalk, pencil graphite, steeliness…
Some experts can recognize notes of petroleum ; others find traces of seashells and iodine. And yet there is that odd sensation : something similar to holding a pebble in your mouth.
Damien Leclerc, managing director of la Chablisienne and our guide in this quest for minerality, takes us deeper into the descriptive metaphors. His words to describe this notion are “those first big raindrops that fall and dry just before a storm on a hot, dry day” beautifully expressing the concept of minerality. There is a sudden refreshing sensation that invades the atmosphere, while at the same time there is tension in the air. A sort of energy, like before an earth tremor.
“Minerality also exudes a certain form of purity, a crystalline expression of the wine” he concludes.
About thirty "crus", with the largest palette of mineral aromas
La Chablisienne is present in the whole vineyard.
In the whole appellation area, we produce every year thirty different "crus" with a strong personality: six Grands Crus, fifteen Premiers Crus, many Chablis and Petit Chablis. Among our Grands Crus there is Château Grenouilles, unique “Château” of the Chablis vineyard. The vinification of the grape juice produced by our wine growers takes place in the cellar, according to the different terroirs. La Chablisienne wines have a strong identity and provide pure emotion, the mineral touch.
A single variety, the Chardonnay
Our vineyard practices and winemaking methods
La Chablisienne since 1923
The beginning of our story dates back to 1923 when a number of winegrowers, faced with the economic crisis of the times, grouped together under the leadership of the Abbé Balitrand to found a cooperative winery in Burgundy, in the heart of the Chablis vineyards, to sell their wines. Up to the middle of the 1950s, members brought their wines to La Chablisienne which then took charge of the blending and sold most of the production wholesale to the wine trade.
Eventually, with a desire to forge on and create its own style, La Chablisienne decided to take in the harvest directly in the form of musts, ensuring that the winery had full control over vinification. This policy has remained a defining feature of La Chablisienne to this day. The winegrowers and technical staff, working together in ongoing exchange, refine the links between the quality of the musts and the climats, or vineyard plots, establishing guidelines for future vineyards as well as for maturing and ageing the wines.
La Chablisienne, still imbued with that pioneering drive, continues to meet the wide-ranging challenges in the vineyards, in vinification, in human resources and in sales… It is the meticulous work of one and all in combination that gives birth to wines that with the passage of time achieve their magnificence.
Our winery groups nearly 300 winegrowers to produce the great white wines of Chablis. These wines reflect the utmost care our winegrowers devote to the cultivation of their vineyards and the commitment our winemakers bring to revealing the heart and soul of the wines. It is this subtle harmony between the grower in the vineyards, the technical advisor and the winemaker which bestows on our wines their much sought-after distinction.
The origins of Chablis village and Chablis wine
The foundation of the Chablis village and its first wines dates back to the Romans. The name "Chablis" might derive from Celtic words meaning "the slope of the ford".
In the year 510, the Christian King Sigismond founded a small monastery dedicated to Saint-Loup, around which the village slowly expanded during the Middle Ages. In the ninth century, the Benedictine monks of the abbey of Saint-Martin de Tours, fleeing the Vikings invaders who sailed up the river Loire, settled in Chablis. In the early 12th century, the foundation, a few leagues from Chablis, of the cistercian abbey of Pontigny, was an other major event for the extension and the fame of the vineyard. Then, vineyards were offered to the religious orders, among other donations. They became important owners.
In a few decades, the reputation of the Chablis wine extended beyond the frontiers of Yonne and Auxerre. The planting of the Chardonnay grape variety in the terroir of Chablis resulted from the monks' meticulous work. Through their impetus, the vine-trade got organized: the wine was exported and mainly to Great Britain. In the same period, it was served to the kings of France.
From the middle-Ages to the Renaissance, the culinary arts became more and more refined and Chablis wines accompanied the most delicate meals. The 17th and 18th centuries were also prosperous times because of the improvement of the means of transport and the development of European trade. The sudden stop to the expansion dates from the late 19th century when phylloxera and mildew destroyed the vineyard.
It was necessary to start again from square one, to exploit the soil, to replant the wine with Chardonnay plants grafted on resistant rootstocks. Then the most prosperous years of the Chablis wine began. It gained an international reputation and took part in the most beautiful stories of the Burgundian wines. In Great Britain, in the United States, in Northern Europe and in Russia, Chablis was synonymous with dry white wine. To meet the great demand of the export trade, the vineyard enlarged and benefited by news viticultural techniques and by protection against the spring frost.
Location
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.
The vineyards
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.
A single variety, le Chardonnay
«About thirty "Crus", with a largest palette of mineral aromas | Our vineyard practices and winemaking methods»
The great renown of Chablis can be ascribed to its unique grape variety: Chardonnay.
It is here in Burgundy, its original homeland, that the grape’s character emerged to become a synonym over the centuries for wine in all its great splendour. On the slopes of Chablis along the Serein valley, the Chardonnay has found over the generations an ideal fit with its native terroir. It is a perfect match deriving largely from the inspired insight of Cistercian monks from Cîteaux, who founded Pontigny Abbey in the 12th century, and which continues to underlie the association of Chardonnay with the terroirs of Chablis.
The work these monks accomplished is crucial to an understanding of today’s wines. The long process, year after year, of identifying the finest terroirs, selecting the best plants to set apart for propagation, perfecting suitable viticulture, experimenting with winemaking methods vintage after vintage – such is the inestimable contribution made by the monastic wine culture of Burgundy. The same outlook and commitment lives on today at La Chablisienne.
Our vineyard practices and winemaking methods
«A single variety, the Chardonnay | Appellations»
La Chablisienne’s commitment is to ensuring that its members run their vineyards in accordance with the principles of sustainable viticulture.
Our priorities are working the soil, the quality of the vines and intervention on the plant throughout the growing season. Recourse to treatment products must be balanced – the French say ‘reasoned”- to ensure respect for the environment, for the vine itself and for people. All this combined activity converges in the choice of the optimal harvesting date which is determined individually, plot by plot, according to analysis of the crop and the taste of the grapes.
Vinification methods are inspired by the same commitment to getting the utmost from the juice, obtaining the greatest expression from the wealth of potential in Chablis’s supreme terroirs.
Our desire is materialised by what are in fact relatively simple winemaking practices:
· musts tasted and analysed systematically prior to rigorous selection,
· avoidance of any hard and fast approach, so that technical decisions can be reasoned and adapted to each wine,
· tasting as the primary tool,
· choices in vinification made in the light of each terroir,
· winemaking and maturing carried out in stainless steel tanks and in barrels (great care taken in choosing both the oak and the barrels),
· extended barrel-ageing on the lees, depending on each classed Cru,
· totality of each wine bottled at the same time.
Appellations
«Our vineyards practices and winemaking methods | Our terroir»
Petit Chablis
The “Petit Chablis” appellation forms the base of the Chablis appellation hierarchy. Situated on the plateaux in clay and limestone soil deriving from Portlandian geological times, the Petit Chablis constitute a panoply of wines whose expressions range from the fresh and lively with fruity aromas best enjoyed young, to dry, mineral wines enhanced by two or three years ageing. Whatever their profile, “Petit Chablis” provide the winelover with a key to the world of Chablis, opening the way to the treasure house of the “Grands”.
Chablis
The “Chablis” appellation is the most extensive of the whole Chablis area. Growing in the renowned Kimmeridgian soil on slopes along both sides of the River Serein, the “Chablis” vineyards give wines that are the indisputable representatives of the real Chablis style. The terroir here brings freshness, a mineral edge, finesse and complexity. Depending on the vinification, the wine can be drunk young, one to three years old, when it has a refreshing quality; or between three and eight years for wines coming from old vines, when they will possess much more complexity, with a mineral touch and richness of aromas.
The Premiers Crus
An encounter with the thirteen different terroirs of the “Chablis Premier Crus”, situated on both banks of the Serein, provides an understanding of the great Kimmeridgian terroirs in Chablis. The vineyards of the Premiers Crus flourish on superbly exposed south-east and south-west facing slopes, bringing to each wine its own unique personality. Thus, certain Premiers Crus such as the Montée de Tonnerre or Côte de Léchet are fine and mineral whereas others, for example the Beauroy, are softer and more fruity, or floral and full-fleshed like the Fourchaume. Chablis Premier Crus reach their full splendour in six to eight years.
The Grands Crus
Renowned worldwide, the “Chablis Grands Crus” are known by winelovers everywhere as the kings of the appellation. Coming exclusively from the right bank of the Serein at Chablis itself, the vineyards make up a complete ensemble of 100 hectares (240 acres) most of which have a south-west aspect. Chablis Grands Crus are well formed and complete with an affirmed character that is enhanced with time. Before really opening out they need five to eight years of ageing and can keep remarkably well. La Chablisienne harvests and vinifies six of the seven Grands Crus, each of which has its own different personality: Bougros: lively and mineral, Les Preuses: with breed and length, Vaudésir: fleshy and big, Les Clos: dry and mineral, Blanchot: supple and aromatic, Grenouilles: elegant and fruity.
Château Grenouilles, a wine of legend
The Château Grenouilles estate is an exceptional property unique in Chablis. Situated in the heart of the Grands Crus vineyards at the foot of the Grenouilles hillside, its 7.2 hectares (some 18 acres) form one superbly exposed single plot facing south-west towards the village and produce the rarest of Chablis Grands Crus: Les Grenouilles. This Château Grenouilles is made from selected sections carrying the oldest vines in the vineyard and the wine allies a nose with great definition to an aromatic purity in the mouth, a harmony of power and finesse and a very long finish. Blessed with enormous potential for keeping, it is a statement of what a great Chablis vin de terroir is. The Château’s second wine, “Le Fief de Grenouilles”, illustrates to perfection the style of Grenouilles’s terroir. The harvest from vines more than thirty five years old gives a wine that is a perfect expression of generosity, harmony between structure and elegance and the mineral edge of a Chablis Grand Cru.