![]() ![]() From left to right: Les Preuses, Vaudésir, Grenouilles (around the house), Valmur, Les Clos, Blanchot, and in the far distance across the Vallée de Brechain, the Premier Cru of Montée de Tonnerre By the 1950s there were only 500 hectares (1,235 acres) of vines planted in Chablis. Many Chablis producers gave up winemaking, the acreage in the region steadily declining throughout much of the early 20th century. Effective replacement of vinestocks to counter phylloxera took some 15 years. The vineyards were affected by oidium from 1886, and then phylloxera from 1887. Firstly, with new railway systems linking all parts of the country with Paris, there was inexpensive wine from regions in the Midi that undercut Chablis. The end of the 19th century was a difficult time for the Chablis growers. The 19th-century Russian novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy mentions "classic Chablis" as a commonplace choice of wine. The new owners were mostly local, and the political upheaval saw small farmers involved as part-time vignerons. ![]() With the French Revolution, the monastic vineyards became biens nationaux, and were auctioned off. Some Champagne producers used Chablis as a basis for a sparkling cuvée. By the 19th century there were nearly 40,000 hectares (98,840 acres) of vines planted in Chablis with vineyards stretching from the town of Chablis to Joigny and Sens along the Yonne. In the 17th century, the English discovered the wine and began importing large volumes. The Seine river, easily accessible via the nearby Yonne river, gave the Chablis wine producers a near monopoly on the lucrative Parisian market. The development of the French railway system opened up the Parisian market to wine regions across the country, dealing a significant blow to the monopoly held by the Chablis wine industry at the time. But in February 1568 the town was besieged by the Huguenots, who burned part of it. There are records in the mid-15th century of Chablis wine being shipped to Flanders and Picardy. The Chablis area became part of the Duchy of Burgundy in the 15th century. Chardonnay is believed to have first been planted in Chablis by the Cistercians of Pontigny Abbey in the 12th century, and from there spread south to the rest of the Burgundy region. In 1245 the chronicler Salimbene di Adam described a Chablis wine. Anséric de Montréal gave a vineyard at Chablis to the Abbey in 1186. Pontigny Abbey was founded in 1114, and the monks planted vines along the Serein. History ĭuring the Middle Ages the Catholic Church, particularly Cistercian monks, became a major influence in establishing the economic and commercial interest of viticulture for the region. The Grands Crus, the best vineyards in the area, all lie on a single, small slope, facing southwest and located just north of the town of Chablis. The soil is Kimmeridge Clay with outcrops of the same chalk layer that extends from Sancerre up to the White Cliffs of Dover, giving a name to the paleontologists' Cretaceous period. The region comprises 15 by 9 kilometres ( 9 + 1⁄ 2 mi × 5 + 1⁄ 2 mi) across 25 communes located along the Serein river. Chablis is closer to the southern Aube district of Champagne than the rest of Burgundy. Of France's wine-growing areas, only Champagne, Lorraine and Alsace have a more northerly location. Location The Yonne department where Chablis is locatedĬhablis lies about sixteen kilometres (10 mi) east of Auxerre in the Yonne department, situated roughly halfway between the Côte d'Or and Paris. Many Grand Cru and Premier Cru wines receive some maturation in oak barrels, but typically the time in barrel and the proportion of new barrels is much smaller than for white wines of Côte de Beaune. ![]() The amount of barrel maturation, if any, is a stylistic choice which varies widely among Chablis producers. Most basic Chablis is unoaked, and vinified in stainless steel tanks. In comparison with the white wines from the rest of Burgundy, Chablis wine has typically much less influence of oak. The grapevines around the town of Chablis make a dry white wine renowned for the purity of its aroma and taste. The Chablis Appellation d'origine contrôlée is required to use Chardonnay grapes solely. These often have a "flinty" note, sometimes described as " goût de pierre à fusil" ("tasting of gunflint"), and sometimes as "steely". Its cool climate produces wines with more acidity and less fruitiness than Chardonnay vines grown in warmer ones. View of Chablis, Burgundy, from the north, vineyard of Vaulorent in the foregroundĬhablis ( pronounced ) is the northernmost wine district of the Burgundy region in France. ![]()
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