Vaudon Chablis "Reserve De Vaudon"

Joseph Drouhin's Chablis holdings are anchored at the Moulin de Vaudon, an 18th-century watermill estate commanding roughly 40 hectares in the appellation — a scale that allows parcel-level selection while maintaining the house's négociant-domaine discipline.

The Réserve de Vaudon draws from Kimmeridgian limestone and clay soils, the fossilised oyster-shell bedrock that gives Chablis its signature saline, chalky tension and distinguishes it from any other Chardonnay terroir in Burgundy.

Vinification follows Drouhin's white-wine protocol: slow pneumatic pressing with free-run juice separated from press fractions, then alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in French high-forest oak barrels using indigenous yeasts, with light bâtonnage during élevage.

New oak is kept deliberately restrained — 10–25% new wood depending on appellation level — so the barrel acts as a vessel for texture rather than flavour. The estate is fully ECOCERT-certified organic and biodynamic, with horse ploughing and cover crops between rows, a commitment unusual for a 40-hectare Chablis holding.

2021 brought severe frost and mildew pressure across Chablis; strict sorting and small yields concentrated the surviving fruit into wines of marked freshness and mineral precision. Drink from 2024 through 2029.