Chablis

Chablis is one small river cutting through a table of limestone. The Serein runs north past the town, and its side valleys break the land into slopes. The slopes are Kimmeridgian, about 155 million years old: grey marl in beds with thin marly limestone, full of a fossil oyster the size of a fingernail, Exogyra virgula. The flat tops above are capped with Portlandian, a younger, harder limestone with little clay. The appellations follow the rock: grand cru, premier cru and Chablis on the Kimmeridgian slopes, Petit Chablis mostly on the Portlandian of the upper slopes and plateaux, at about 230 to 280 m. All seven grands crus share one hill on the right bank, looking south-west across the river at the town. Spring frost is the other constant; growers have lit heaters in the vines since 1959.

Our two growers work both sides of that line. The Dauvissats farm from Beine, in the cold side valley west of Chablis. Their Beauroy is one parcel at the eastern end of the climat, in the Côte de Savant, facing south-west above the lake at Beine; Florent says the lake “definitely has an impact on the microclimate”, with morning mists and slower ripening. Across the river, Les Brèches de Fyé faces south at Bréchain, below the plateau, carrying on from the grand cru Blanchot. Their Petit Chablis, Les Deux Terres, is named for its two grounds: clay on the plateau at Beine near Vau Ligneau, and hard Portlandian limestone on the plateau above Fyé. Yannick Cadiou’s Chablis and La Côte d’Or are on the left bank under Montmains, facing Vaillons; his Petit Chablis is the stony plateau at Lignorelles, the first vine he planted, in 1996.

Tap any two to compare them and cut a slice between them: Bréchain against the plateau above it shows the step from marl to hard limestone in under a kilometre. Lieux-dits are placed from the BIVB’s map of Burgundy’s lieux-dits; five pins are approximate, as the caption explains. Stéphanie Colinot’s Irancy, about 15 km to the south-west, has its own plate (XIV).