Romain and Damien Bouchard founded their winemaking estate only in 2016, yet they are the fourth generation of their clan to toil the classic and chalky, Kimmeridgian soils of Chablis. For decades, the family provided other winemakers with peerless Chardonnay fruit, pulled from impressive holdings in grand cru and premier cru vineyards, planted carefully by family hands. With a passion to craft Chablis wines according to “simple and natural” methods and with a good dose of “observation and patience,” the brothers—who call themselves “perfectionists”— have set a new, higher standard for the character-driven wines of Chablis.

For this 2019 Chablis, the brothers source perfect, older-vine fruit from vineyards near the villages of Chablis, La Chapelle Vaupelteigne and Beines, the “heart” of the Chablis region and some of its best, chalkiest and purest soils. This is a “basic” Chablis that is more than a cut above — texture, intensity, flavor, it’s all there.