For all its merits, sometimes the French appellation boggles the mind. Case in point: Domaine Chantemerle’s Petit Chablis. This is steely, mineral-loaded, electrifying Chardonnay grown on limestone and ready to wow with its balance of texture and thirst-quenching precision. Yet because it’s grown on Portlandian, not Kimmeridgian, limestone it falls into the “lesser” of the two village appellations in the region. Never mind that it’s shepherded into bottle by one of Chablis’ most important producers. No skin off our backs; all it means is that a bottle that checks every Chablis box we can think of comes priced to pour any night of the week. That’s a welcome thing indeed, as Chablis has seen the same meteoric price increases the rest of Burgundy has. Simply put, there’s nothing “Petit” at all about Chantemerle’s Petit Chablis. Grab it by the case and revel in the marvel of Chantemerle!
About that limestone: The Chablis region as a whole is dominated by it, and two significant bands of the stuff run under vineyards. The first and more famous is Kimmeridgian, loaded with ancient oceanic fossils and aged about 150 million years old. It imbues the wines grown on it, from Chablis to Sancerre, with scintillating minerality. The second limestone is Portlandian, which is considered less important because it’s “younger,” a mere 145 million years of age. As you might guess, Portlandian limestone basically functions identically to Kimmeridgian when it comes to growing grapes, and you get the same mineral verve from both.
The Petit Chablis appellation vineyards sit on the plateau above the village and Premier Cru slopes. They’re generally a little flatter than sites in Chablis proper, and have long been thought to produce simple and fruity wines for early consumption. But in recent years, as conscientious producers have looked for vineyards where they might make wines that are still affordable, that story has started to change. Like any Burgundy village appellation, there are nooks and crannies that produce wines that drink far above their ranking. Such is the case in Chantemerle’s Petit Chablis, from vines in the village of Beine. As further evidence of the appellation system’s oversights, there’s even a vein of Kimmeridgian chalk running through Chantemerle’s holdings!
Domaine de Chantemerle has long been an under-the-radar source for utterly classic Chablis. It was founded in the 1960s by Adhemar Boudin and is now run by his son Francis. The ethos here is simple: old, lower-yielding Chardonnay clones in great sites, farmed sustainably, and aged in either cement or steel. There’s never any wood used in Chantemerle wines, all the better to emphasize the tension we emphatically prize in Chablis.
The Chantemerle Petit Chablis comes from younger vines, pressed whole cluster into stainless steel. The wine ferments spontaneously, then ages for another year in stainless before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. It pours a clear brilliant yellow color, the nose a rush of textbook Chablisienne qualities–oyster shell, pulverized chalk, seaspray, white flowers, green apple flesh, and hints of straw and raw cream. The palate is textured–not just mineral bones but also fruit-driven flesh, leaning firmly into lemon zest and wet stones before the gunflint minerality drives the finish. In our era of ever-warmer vintages, it can be hard to find even Premier Cru Chablis this classically stony. But one whiff of Chantemerle’s Petit Chablis and we’re back in the golden years for the appellation. Best of all, it’s affordable enough to be our weeknight wine. We couldn’t ask for more from a bottle of Chablis!
