Chavy-Chouet

Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Saint-Aubin, Volnay, Pommard: the portfolio of sites at Domaine Chavy-Chouet is more than impressive. The same goes for the wines that Romaric Chavy has steered over the past 15 years towards a thoroughly clear and unadulterated style.

Freshness & Precision

Here the whites are very fresh, precise, tonic and marked by minerality, and the reds are very clearly structured, quite powerful and at the same time fruity and full of finesse. The Ropiteau legacy
It is very typical of Burgundy that names and sizes of estates change and reshape themselves again and again. In the end it was no different at Domaine Chavy-Chouet. Even though Romaric Chavy is already a winemaker of the seventh generation, the first bottles under the Chavy-Chouet label were only filled in 1982. Romaric's grandparents had brought the property into the family. His grandfather was a Chavy from Puligny-Montrachet, his grandmother a Ropiteau from the famous family of growers and négociants. Albert Chavy-Ropiteau still sold the yield of the harvest to Bouchard Père. Only Romaric's father Hubert decided in 1982 to fill the first bottles, after he had married a winemaker's daughter from Pommard. At first he called the domaine Chavy-Chouet, but then moved on to bottling the wines under his own name, that is under “Hubert Chavy”.

Romaric joined the estate in 2006, after completing his training, spending some time with his godfather François Mikulski and working, among other places, in Greece and South Africa. Since the sudden death of his father in 2014, Romaric has run the domaine together with his wife.

The Chavy Chouet Portfolio of Sites

The great treasure of the estate is its excellent parcels in Meursault, for example Les Narvaux, Les Charmes, Les Genevrières and the monopole site Clos de Corvées de Citeau. In Saint-Aubin it is the 1er Cru Les Murgers des Dents de Chien, whose quality has risen markedly with climate change. To these are added Les Enseignères, Les Champs-Gain and Les Folatières in Puligny-Montrachet, as well as Pinot parcels in Volnay and Pommard. But it is not only the sites that score here, but the quality of the vines, up to 70 years old, which have been farmed without herbicides for 30 years and for some years now exclusively organically.

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The young talent Romaric Chavy[/caption]

In the 15 years he has run the domaine, Romaric has made one saying of Henri Jayer his own: “Young winemakers should move with the times and study oenology very closely, in order then to manage without it.” His wines have become ever clearer and more tense, more nervy and purer.

The 2019 Vintage

Every year brings new challenges, and 2019 had quite a lot to offer. First there was the frost on 3 and 5 April. Romaric had acquired several large wind machines specifically to support air circulation in the vineyards and thus minimise frost, but this only works with cold, dry air. The nights, however, were icy and damp. So he could do nothing to prevent crop losses of up to 40 % in some sites.

The next challenge came in the form of several hot and dry periods, which the vineyards, not least thanks to their age and the deep roots of the vines, coped with well. When the team began the harvest on 7 September, the vines looked beautiful.

Romaric appreciates the 2019 vintage, which is more concentrated and above all more acid-driven than the 2018, in which one had the feeling that all the wines could be drunk straight away. 2019 seems much more classical, as far as one can still call recent vintages that. Definitely, though, these are 1er Cru wines that demand cellar maturation and have high ageing potential. Particularly recommended for getting to know Romaric's style are the Bourgogne blanc from the Meursault single site Les Saussots and the Bourgogne rouge from the Pommard single site La Taupe. These are very approachable and very brilliant wines with precision, freshness and finesse.

Text and wine expertise: Christoph Raffelt