When a deeply established name creates a new label, the wine world listens with rapt attention, and the Bouchards of Domaine de l’Enclos currently have us spellbound. So far, all of their wines have been incredibly, impossibly profound but today’s Grand Cru Vaudésir, which is culled from a mere half-hectare of organic vines, resides at the towering peak.
It’s simple: When you can get your hands on a micro-bottling of top-shelf, top-vintage white Burgundy for under $80, there is only one correct move—buy it, and buy it quickly. With perfumed aromatics, endlessly broad textures, and a prismatic HD display of minerality, this rare blue chip offers a staggering expression of place; there’s a reason only seven Grand Crus exist in Chablis, and that both “Vaudésir” and “Le Clos” garner the highest reputation. Thanks to the generous and widely praised 2018 vintage, this bottle is already providing such a pleasurable, hedonistic experience so if you want to open one right now, do it! Fewer than 20 cases initially made it into the country and we have what little remains, therefore, purchases must be capped at six bottles per person.
Once I realized who was behind Domaine de l’Enclos, I was no less impressed but a little less surprised: Romain and Damien Bouchard grew up in Chablis working alongside their father, Pascal, and the heart of their operation is a significant stand of prime Chablis vineyards that has been in their family for generations. Pascal Bouchard sold his extremely successful business in 2015, but he held onto his family vineyard holdings to pass along to Romain and Damien. The brothers had previously been making their own wines in a small corner of Pascal Bouchard’s cellar, but, once equipped with 30+ hectares of vineyards, with an average age of 30 years, the time was ripe to set up their own shop.
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They may have only launched their Domaine de l'Enclos label in 2016, but as you can see, this is no rookie operation—it’s a pair of seasoned vintners working with mature, prime-positioned vines. Their first few years of operation have, in fact, been focused largely on sustainable viticulture, and I can’t help but notice that 2018 was also the year they achieved official organic certification. In addition to spending their first years refining their viticultural practices and pushing for organics, they constructed a new cellar underneath their family home in the town of Chablis proper. It’s a modern cellar, but one which employs many traditional practices, including moving all juice/wine by gravity only.
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Amidst a steep, natural amphitheater in the center of Chablis’ seven Grand Crus rests Grand Cru Vaudésir. This iconic vineyard produces some of the most long-lived wines in Burgundy and is a steal when compared to Grand Cru whites of Côte de Beaune. As such, each parcel is fiercely coveted and hard to come by which is why the Bouchards only farm 0.5 hectares. Through traditional winemaking, their organic 30-year-old vines are transformed into a pure, uber-concentrated reflection of this storied terroir. Following a manual harvest, both fermentation and maturation occurred in French barrels for a combined total of 18 months. The final wine was bottled without fining.
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While waiting for the beauty to open up in a decanter for 20-30 minutes, I suggest cleaning and polishing your biggest Burgundy stems and making sure the wine is hovering around a 50-55-degree temperature. Once it finally does enter your glass, be prepared for its initially subtle aromatics to blossom into a perfumed array of clean and ripe yellow apples, fresh pear, green pineapple, nectarine, hazelnut, crushed white stone, salt-preserved lemon, candied white flowers, lees, high-toned citrus, and faint hints of baking spice. The palate is expansive and lush yet brimming with surges of acidity that make Chablis the greatest Grand Cru white Burgundy value in the world. This is wonderfully approachable right now, so I must urge you to open at least one bottle, but please do save your others for consumption around 2023 and 2028. This is sensational, and will only keep getting better!
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