Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Vieilles Vignes de Sainte Claire 2025

The Chablis Vieilles Vignes de Sainte Claire comes from the Sainte Claire vineyard, in Préhy, south-west of Chablis, the birthplace of the Jean-Marc Brocard house. The vines, around sixty years old, are planted on the Kimmeridgian terroir, the Jurassic marls and limestones rich in small fossilised oysters that have made the appellation famous. In a semi-continental climate, with cold winters and temperate summers, the Chardonnay ripens slowly, keeping bright acidity and deep minerality.

The vines are farmed under certified organic agriculture. The harvest is moved by gravity through to settling, without pumping, to respect the integrity of the musts. Alcoholic fermentation takes place with native yeasts, at a temperature regulated between 18 and 20 °C, and malolactic fermentation is completed. The wine is then aged for twelve months on the lees, entirely in stainless-steel tanks, giving it volume and texture while preserving the purity of the terroir.

This wine reveals notes of white flowers, hawthorn, pineapple, yellow peach, candied lemon, golden apple, hazelnut and flint. The pale yellow colour with silvery-green glints opens on a floral nose, followed by a core of ripe and exotic fruit. The palate is broad and precise, with a velvety, rounded texture, and extends into a mineral finish with hints of gunflint.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.