Description
Domaine de l’Enclos, Chablis
Our first encounter with the Chablis wines of Domaine de l’Enclos was only two years ago, and I remember it like it was yesterday: Their village-level Chablis wound up on a table next to some heavy-hitter competition, including a Grand Cru from a highly respected domaine, and it didn’t just hold its own—it shined. We subsequently learned who was behind l’Enclos, and the whole experience started to make a little more sense:
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 have been in their family for generations. They may have only launched Domaine de l’Enclos in 2016, but this is no rookie operation—it’s a pair of seasoned vintners working with mature, organically farmed vines. Their first few years of operation have, in fact, been focused largely on organic viticulture, with official certification awarded in 2018. The purity, tension, and texture of their village Chablis, at this price, is simply mind-blowing. If you are a Chablis fanatic like me, it’s time to do a deep dive into Domaine de l’Enclos—they are a producer of the moment and are meeting that moment in grand style.
NOTE: To facilitate this deep dive, don’t stop at the village bottling: We also have a smaller parcel of their soaring Premier Cru “Vau de Vey.” It, too, is an amazing value and can be found here.
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 the Pascal Bouchard winery, but, once equipped with 30+ hectares of well-placed vineyards, with an average age of 30 years, the time was ripe to set up their own shop. In addition to spending their first years refining their farming practices and pushing for organic certification, 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.
Fruit for this hierarchy-busting village Chablis was sourced from estate vineyards in the villages of Chablis, La Chapelle Vaupelteigne, Beines, Fontenay and Villy. The sites encompass a variety of exposures but are rooted mostly in the chalky Kimmeridgian limestone Chablis is so famous for, with some flatter parcels containing more clay and Portlandian limestone. The wine was fermented using only ambient yeasts in stainless steel, followed by nine months of aging on the fine lees (spent yeasts) in tank.
Today’s ’19 follows in the footsteps of the superb ’18 we offered previously: It is definitely a “new-generation” wine in terms of its ripeness and texture, but still with the tension and minerality that makes Chablis Chablis. In the glass, it’s a pale yellow-gold with flashes of silver and green, with textbook aromas of green and yellow apple, lemon zest, white flowers, crushed oyster shells, and wet stones. It is medium-bodied and has a hint of creaminess, but there’s a spine of minerality and citrusy freshness lending plenty of raciness. This one should continue to evolve beautifully over the next three years, but that would assume I’m not going to make it my house white starting immediately: Decant it 15 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems at 50 degrees and you’ll be blown away by the quality. Let the wine shine alongside some whole grilled fish, prepared simply and drizzled with copious amounts of lemon. The only question left is: Why can’t we drink (and eat) this well every night?
