Domaine Alain Gautheron 2024 Bourgogne Blanc

750ml bottle

13% abv

Crisp, dry, chalky Chardonnay, with aromas of citrus (lemon, bergamot), white flowers, and stonefruits (peach, apricot); hints of white tea, delicate flowers, and fresh-cream. The palate is bright, with zesty acidity and a crisp, chalky, and saline mineral core. The fruit profile is lemon, green apple, and white peach. The finish is clean and mineral-driven rather than oak-laden. Light-to-medium bodied, precise, and food-friendly. This is value-packed White Burgundy with Chablis-like precision. 

Cyril Gautheron is a rising star in Chablis. His family has made wine here for 200 years, but Cyril has taken the reins with an unusual passion. His wines are clean and elegant, made from pure Chardonnay with little or no use of oak.

Domaine Alain (et Cyril) Gautheron — a family estate based in Fleys on the eastern side of the Chablis district — sources this Bourgogne Blanc from Chardonnay parcels around Chablis (vineyards are just outside Chablis).

In 1977 Alain Gautheron, the 6th generation in a line of Chablis vignerons, joined his father Jean in the family domaine located about 4 kilometers from the town of Chablis. At that time, the domaine was comprised of a mere 8 hectares and was selling around 10,000 bottles a year. Alain decided to get serious and, with the help of his father, grew the domaine’s holdings. In 1991 when Jean decided to retire, Alain took over the entire 14.5-hectare estate. He was joined in 2000 by his son Cyril, who helped create a new cuverie and generally bring the domaine into the modern era.

Today, the domaine consists of 25 hectares of vineyards spread across the Petit Chablis, Chablis, and Chablis Premier Cru appellations. Alain has basically retired and Cyril has taken over the day-to-day operations. Their annual production is around 150,000 bottles.

The Chardonnay vineyards are planted on the region’s famed Kimmeridgien and Portlandian soils, and the domaine’s town (Fleys) is known for its soil’s particularly high content of fossilized snails (of which Alain keeps several examples in their tasting room).

Believing in respecting the land passed down to them by their forebears, and preserving it for future generations, the family farms all their vineyards using the principles of lutte raisonée: yields are kept lower by green harvest and pruning, they have avoided weed killers in favor of allowing grass between the rows wherever possible, and they use natural solutions to stimulate the vines to be more self-protecting from pests and disease. In 2009 they began working 100% organically on one 3-hectare parcel of vines.

In the older vine parcels, harvest is solely by hand, while in the younger vines, it’s by machine. Grapes are immediately pressed so as to preserve their freshness, then ferment in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. After undergoing malolactic fermentation, the wine sits on its lees for an amount of time depending on the cru and the vintage. There is a light filtration and the wine is bottled, though depending on the wine it is allowed to age for a time in bottle first.