Domaine Brigitte Cerveau

Domaine Brigitte Cerveau is a family estate in Chablis, in the far north of Burgundy where Chardonnay ripens later and more slowly than anywhere else in the region.

The defining feature is the soil. Kimmeridgian marl is a Jurassic seabed of clay and limestone dense with fossilised oyster shell, and it is what gives Chablis its particular combination of chalky texture, taut acidity and saline length. The best sites face south and south-west across the Serein valley.

Chablis is made almost entirely in stainless steel, without new oak, on the principle that the wine should show the ground rather than the cellar. It is also among the most frost-vulnerable places in France, which is why volumes swing so sharply from one vintage to the next.