Domaine Julien Brocard Les 7 Lieux Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses 2023

Les Preuses is one of the seven climats classified as grand cru in Chablis, on the right-bank slope of the Serein overlooking the town. Julien Brocard crafts one of the flagship cuvées of his Les 7 Lieux range from it, a range devoted to the family’s singular terroirs. The vines, around thirty years old, are planted on Kimmeridgian terroir, Jurassic marls and limestone rich in fossilised oyster shells. The semi-continental climate and the slope’s exposure bring ideal ripeness, combining richness and tension.

The vines are farmed biodynamically and work in the cellar follows the rhythm of the planetary cycle. The grapes are pressed in a pneumatic press, then ferment without any commercial yeast. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in large oak vats (foudres), where the wine continues its ageing for twelve months, during which malolactic fermentation is carried through to completion. This large vessel gives the wine a velvety texture while preserving the precision and depth of the grand cru.

This wine reveals notes of brioche, fresh butter, orange, cinnamon, candied lemon, yellow peach, hazelnut and iodine. The golden-yellow colour with silvery glints heralds a brioche-like nose with a core of orange and sweet spices. The palate, precise and elegant, unfolds a velvety texture with fine persistence, before a saline finish.

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.