Domaine De L’Enclos Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot 2023

Founded by siblings Romain and Damien Bouchard, Domaine de l’Enclos represents a new generation of Chablis winemakers committed to demanding organic viticulture. The family has been working in Chablis for generations. In 2015, they sold their father’s négociant business but retained the 39 hectares of vineyard previously owned by their mother’s family. The brothers worked in their parents’ domaine from an early age, and before founding L’Enclos, Romain took over Domaine de la Grande Chaume, which he converted to organic farming, before merging it with the family’s parental holdings.

The domaine obtained organic certification in 2018, supplemented by biodynamic methods since 2017, and their underground vinification cellar — five metres below ground — provides natural temperature regulation and is comprised primarily of small stainless-steel tanks, ensuring that the various parcels can be vinified separately. The estate now holds three Grand Cru and seven Premier Cru sites across Chablis, including fine slivers of celebrated climats such as Fourchaume, Blanchot, and Les Clos.

The estate’s style aims for precise, saline, and luminous Chardonnays, true to the limestone energy of the Serein valley.

The vineyard
The 2023 comes from a tiny 0.23-hectare parcel within the Blanchot Grand Cru, planted by the brothers’ father in 1982, set on a low and steeply sloping section of the climat. Blanchot itself spans 12.7 hectares to the east of the Grands Crus hillside, a notoriously difficult terroir to cultivate: its east/southeast exposure gives the vines only a limited window of direct sun, yet the site remains paradoxically warm, and its steep, sheltered position allows the grapes to ripen slowly, with harvest here typically taking place well after that of its neighbour, Les Clos.

Vinification
Hand-harvested on 13 September 2023, with slow whole-bunch pressing and spontaneous fermentation from indigenous yeasts. The wine was aged in used oak barrels — a slightly newer proportion than in some previous vintages — and bottled on 18 November 2024, with a total sulphur content of 59 mg/l.

Eye
Clear, pale gold.

Nose
Elegant and delicate, with white and yellow stone fruit notes of pear, apricot cream, star fruit, and lemon curd, complemented by blanched almonds, fine vanilla, and subtle, well-integrated wood — a touch more pronounced this vintage given the slightly newer barrels used, lending the wine an especially refined, fragrant intensity.

Palate
Juicy and creamy, with a silky texture and elegant acidic structure. Saline and piquant notes run through the finish, which is mouth-watering and powerful, the oak woven seamlessly into the fruit. A noble, energetic Grand Cru in perfect harmony between fruit, wood, and minerality — elegant and powerful at once.

Food Pairing
Lobster in butter, pan-fried scallops, Poularde de Bresse with morels, or a well-aged Comté — a wine built for richer, more refined dishes that can match its intensity.