Domaine de l'Enclos is the work of brothers Romain and Damien Bouchard, fourth-generation vignerons who founded the estate in 2016 after selling their father's négociant business, keeping 33 hectares of organically farmed vines in the heart of Chablis. Their grandfather, André Tremblay, planted many of the family's finest parcels beginning in the early 1960s, when Chablis was merely a neglected corner of Burgundy.
Today the brothers farm those vines with Poussard pruning, organic fertilizers, and hand-harvesting. A year-round team of 20 assists them, increasing to 60 around harvest. Winemaking happens in a gravity-fed cellar built beneath a 19th-century former abbey. Grapes are pressed pneumatically, a gentler extraction method especially suited for Chablis, then fermented with indigenous yeasts in small stainless steel tanks. Each parcel is vinified on its own. The wines rest on the lees for up to 18 months in tank and seasoned oak, unfined and never cold-stabilized. Only a light filtration and a touch of sulfur at bottling.
This is the wine that bears their grandfather's name. André Tremblay, called Dédé, planted this 0.28-hectare parcel in the early 1960s in the historic heart of the Fourchaume vineyard, on the commune of La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne. The estate calls him the pioneer at the origin of the domaine and the brothers' destiny as vignerons. Fourchaume sits on the right bank of the Serein, sharing the same geological position as the grand cru row but facing west from the valley ridge at a higher altitude. These chardonnay vines are the oldest on the estate, now over sixty years old, rooted in Kimmeridgian limestone and clay.
Hand-harvested and aged 14 months in seasoned oak, the 2023 Dédé opens with concentrated tropical fruit and tangelo zest on the nose, giving way to a creamy palate. Notes of fresh thyme, chervil, and ocean spray, threaded through lemon curd, green apple, and a long mineral finish. Not much of this wine is produced to begin with, and most of what exists is snatched up by restaurants. We’re delighted to have some to share with you.
