Guillaume Michel isn’t joking when he says he aims to make pure Chablis. The cellar here hasn’t seen an oak barrel in 55 years. There’s practically nothing doing in the winery, where Guillaume has one helper. Someone else works in the office. The rest of the team—seven people—work exclusively in the vineyard from 1st January till 31st December.
And that’s quite some vineyard. Across Chablis, the village appellation is by far the largest. Just 13% of production comes from the Premiers Crus, and a measly 1.5% is labelled as Grand Cru. Chez Louis Michel, those stats are turned on their head; Premier Cru and Grand Cru Chablis account for 70%.
In 2023, spring was wet, and July was too, bringing disease pressure that led to losses from mildew. Some of the Grand Cru areas were down by as much as 45%. The weather improved towards the end of the month, and véraison kicked off on 30th. A warm August included heat waves. The final stage of ripening took place in ideal conditions, with a relatively rapid weeklong harvest kicking off on 11th September.
“At the end, it’s a very nice vintage that shows that even in that context of a warm climate, Chablis continues to produce wines that are quite full of energy, of this minerality,” Guillaume told us. “And what’s interesting in the ’23 vintage, despite the very strong vintage effect on the wines, you can already feel the different expressions of terroir in all the wines. It shows that the terroir can also continue to produce wines with a very strong identity, even in growing conditions that are changing.”
Indeed, these exceptional vineyard holdings have produced singular expressions, full of lovely Chardonnay character and rippling with pebbly, ultra-clean saline drive.