Chablis "Les Butteaux" 1er cru Domaine Eleni et Edouard Vocoret 2021, 75 cl.

History

Eleni is of Greek and German origin and studied wine marketing in Austria. She learned the whole wine-making process at Weingut Jurtschitsch in the famous Kamptal area in Austria.

Edouard is from Chablis and represents the 7th generation of wine-makers in the Vocoret family. After having studied and worked all over France (e.g. Domaine Daniel et Julien Barraud, Domaine Gilbert Piqu et fils, Domaine La Grand' Ribe), he decided to go to NZ to get to know a different approach of wine-making.

Eleni and Edouard get to know each other working together during the 2010 harvest at Allan Scott Winery in NZ. Afterwards they decide to return to Chablis to do a second harvest together and Edouard's family estate.

After this vintage Edouard keeps working in his family's estate, whereas Eleni gains experience in various Domaines in Chablis, e.g. Domaine Vincent Dauvissat, Domaine Nathalie Oudin.

"In 2013 we decide to start our own micro-winery. Edouard's father and grandfather offer us the opportunity to get 5ha in Chablis: Chablis 1er Cru "Les Butteaux", Chablis "Le Bas de Chapelot", Chablis "Les Pargues" and Chablis "Boucheran". We are really lucky as the vineyards are all in amazing locations with wonderful clay and limestone soils and planted with old vines (35 years to 50 years old).

5ha are a perfect size to work for two persons, so we can do everything by our own, no stuff necessary. We try to work as sustainable as possible, which means that we are doing most of the work in the vineyard by hand and we are working a lot with the soil (lots of ploughing!!), which is for us the base to do fine wine and to express the terroir. We do not use any herbicides and spray organically (without certificate)."

Our grapes are handpicked and during pressing process carefully handed by gravity. In the cellar we let the wine develop on his own. The alcoholic and malo-lactic fermentation is done naturally in tanks and afterwards the wine matures in old oak barrels for about one year until we decide that he is just ready to be bottled. We are very keen to keep the minerality and the tension, which are so typical for Chablis wines.

Terroir

Bas de Chapelot comes from a 3.2 hectare parcel just below Montée de Tonnerre. It is the Vocoret's only parcel on the right side of the river bank. The soil is deep, clay and limestone, and Kimmeridgian (moyen). The vines are now 40 years old vines and due to their proximity to the riverbed are very exposed to frost.