Joseph Drouhin Vaudon Chablis "Premier Cru"

The Drouhin family's Chablis operation is anchored at the Moulin de Vaudon, an 18th-century watermill estate spanning roughly 40 hectares — a deliberate northward extension of the Beaune house into Chablis' most mineral-driven soils. The Premier Cru vineyards sit on the region's signature Kimmeridgian limestone-and-clay, a marine sediment rich in fossilised oyster shells that drives the saline, chalky tension Chablis cannot replicate elsewhere. Fermentation is conducted in French high-forest oak barrels using indigenous yeasts, with malolactic fermentation also completed in barrel — a technique that integrates oak without masking the site's stony character. New oak is held to 10–25% of the barrel stock, seasoned approximately three years before coopering, ensuring wood remains a textural tool rather than a flavour source. Light bâtonnage during élevage adds body without blurring the appellation's linear acidity. What sets this cuvée apart within the Drouhin range is the biodynamic farming certification (ECOCERT, awarded from the 2009 vintage) applied across all 40 Chablis hectares — rare discipline for a négociant-domaine of this scale. The 2018 vintage, noted for excellent phenolic maturity and whites of dynamic freshness despite a warm growing season, delivers Premier Cru Chablis with textural generosity and the structural tension to develop through 2026–2030.