de l'Enclos
Domaine de l'Enclos in Chablis farms 29 hectares of vineyards, including the Grands Crus Les Clos, Vaudésir and Blanchot. Romain and Damien Bouchard, the fourth generation of a Chablis winegrowing family, sold their father's wine merchant house Pascal Bouchard in 2015, kept the vines and founded their own estate in 2016. They farm organically, following biodynamic principles since 2017, harvest by hand and let their wines ferment with wild yeasts. The vines stand on average thirty years old in Kimmeridgian limestone, some over fifty. The wines age in stainless steel and used oak barrels, on fine lees for up to eighteen months.
Romain and Damien Bouchard, fourth generation
The brothers come from a winegrowing family in Chablis and in 2015 faced a decision about what to do with their father's wine merchant house, Pascal Bouchard. They sold it, kept the vineyards, and founded Domaine de l'Enclos from them in 2016. With this fresh start, they switched to organic farming, and since 2017 have incorporated biodynamic principles. The soils receive organic compost, and every grape is harvested by hand.
A 19th-century estate
The estate's seat sits in the centre of Chablis: a 19th-century property once home to the monks of Pontigny. Beneath it, the Bouchards had a 450-square-metre gravity cellar built, where grapes and wines are moved without pumps.
Les Clos, Vaudésir and Blanchot
The Grand Cru Les Clos was planted by the grandfather in 1964. In the Grand Cru Vaudésir, the Bouchards own 0.57 hectares, planted by their father in 1992 precisely at the point where the valley cuts deep. In the Grand Cru Blanchot, they own 0.23 hectares in a low, steeply sloping part of the vineyard, planted in 1982. Both plots are harvested by hand, pressed slowly as whole clusters, fermented spontaneously and aged in used oak.
These are joined by the Premiers Crus Fourchaume, Montmains, Beauroy, Mont de Milieu and Vau de Vey. Vau de Vey lies in a side valley along the road from Chablis via Poinchy to Beines, east-facing on the left bank of the Serein. The vineyard stretches long and steep across 40.57 hectares; its soil is argilo-calcaire, clay-rich limestone. The Bouchards farm 2.77 hectares here, planted in 1979, and the wine ages for thirteen months, half in stainless steel, half in used tonneaux, on fine lees.
Wild fermentation and minimal sulphur
In the cellar, the wines ferment with wild yeasts, with Romain and Damien Bouchard intervening as little as possible. They are not fined, and in the end undergo only a coarse filtration and a small dose of sulphur. The Chablis "à l'ouest" carries sans sulfite ajouté in its name and comes from three hectares of vines planted in 1984, facing south and south-east on Kimmeridgian soil; it ferments spontaneously, rests sixteen months in stainless steel tank on lees, and receives 10 milligrams of sulphur per litre at bottling. The Revue du Vin de France calls these wines a safe bet.