CHABLIS GRAND CRU "LES BLANCHOTS"

Tasting notes:

Beautiful bright yellow robe with golden-green reflections. Les Blanchots is remarkably elegant. The nose is dominated by a bouquet of white flowers (Lillies, roses). The mouth is ample and generous with great harmony. The finale is very mineral with discreet hints of sea air and smoke (flint, pencil graphite).

Serving suggestions:

The mineral purity of this wine will beautifully accompany Japanese cuisine using raw fish (breem sushis or pollack makis for example). Alternatively grilled or oven-stewed white meats are perfect, in a tender and unctuous register.
For cheese, small goat cheeses or cream cheese with fresh herbs are just perfect.

Serving and keeping
Serve between 11 and 13°C. This Grand Cru can be drunk in its prime youth or can be lied down for a dozen or so years to develop hints of honey and spring meadow mushrooms.

Work in the vineyards

Planted 2,600 per acre, the vines are grown according to the double cane pruning method ("double Guyot" or "Chablis" pruning) which is traditional in Chablis. Aged over 35 years, our Blanchots vines today have restrained vigour with low yields (16 hL/acre) which is a guarantee of high quality grapes from this delicate terroir.
Certain areas are 40% slopes so we cannot use machinery to work our parcel's soil. We use a winch to pull the plough up along the slope. The mechanical weeding and scraping operations of our soils are therefore particularly gruelling, as is harvesting.

Vinification

The grapes are manually harvested and rapidly taken to the Château's vathouse in order to avoid and premature oxidation.
They are then gently and carefully pressed in a pneumatic winepress to avoid extracting any herbaceous vegetation. A meticulous raking of the must eliminates all the remaining impurities.
To fully respect the terroir's expressiveness, our Grand Cru is vinified in vats (85%) and in oak barrels (15%) previously used between 1 to 4 times.

Ageing

The ageing of our « les Blanchots » Grand Cru lasts for approximately 6 months in 228 litre capacity barrels. This is a shorter duration than for our other Grand Crus which again emphasizes the particular uniqueness of this vineyard parcel. Ageing is carried-out on fermentation lees with the mixing of suspension particles by stirring the lees 4 to 5 times during the ageing process. This ensures full development of the aromatic complexity and enhances depth and fatness. The barrel wine is then blended with the vat wine and ageing continues a further 6 months in order to homogenize the wine, integrate the
portion aged in barrels and to gain in mineral notes.