Tasted with Céline and Laurent Notton in Chichée, 10 January 2022.

Domaine Laurent & Céline Notton
4 impasse Saint-Paul
89800 Chichée
Tel: +33 6 81 03 98 66
www.chablis-notton.com

Here’s a very well-hidden domaine – found on the end of a tiny street in Chichée – such that I’m, at first, unsure if I can drive up the road. Laurent laughs – yes, we try not to have the trucks come up the road every week! Once inside you are greeted by a fine and modern cuverie with shiny stainless steel tanks.

The domaine began life in 2005-2006 ‘from nothing,’ says Céline. It’s currently a domaine that exploits 17 hectares, the largest part coming from grandparents on the maternal side and another 2 hectares from the paternal side. Not all was planted so the team here have been planting extra vines each year. Some of the family history is from Chitry – hence their Bourgogne and some Rataffia production – but they also have vines in Courgis and Chablis. Many vines date from the 1960s including their Beauregards 1er cru – their vines in Vaugirot are much older.

There are no hired workers, they do everything themselves, in fact, a large part of the cuverie installation was also done by Laurent whose previous job was in engineering. They have HVE3 certification and harvest everything – except their crémants – by machine.

A large part of their production is sold in bulk as finished wine. There is some export from here but their current sales in bottle are more geared to France.

The wines…

A new domaine for me but the quality is fine here – and the 2020 Bourgogne is an impressive piece of work too!

Only ‘natural’ cork used here:

2020 Chablis
All tank elevage
This has an inviting nose of slightly round yellow citrus. A chalky, mouth-watering intensity. A rounder wine – a little like the nose but pure and with a zesty citrus style. The finish has a bit extra – lovely extra complexity here – Yum.

2020 Chablis Vieilles Vignes
All barrel elevage – older barrels averaging at least 5 years old
A deeper, darker nose – faintly from oak but spiced rather than with cream or vanilla. Ultra silky, direct, extra saline too. The nose needs to improve for me to call this great – but that’s all that needs to improve. Really an excellent wine but wait 2 years for all the oak to fade…

2020 Chablis 1er Vaucoupin
1.5 hectares here.
Quite some aromatic depth – it needs a bit of air to clean up – but it does – there’s fine clarity here and growing florals too. Wider, lithe muscle, extra intensity. Yes – this is a beauty – simply an excellent 1er! Just a little more saline and agrume complexity to finish. A super finish

2020 Chablis 1er Vaugirot
vines from 1935, just 1,200 bottles – one new barrel the other 4-5 years old – about 10 month
That’s a tighter nose but also you can see the concentration here – a mix of ripe citrus – but yellow and green. Like the VV there’s extra silk and directness to this wine – the oak is much less visible in this case though just visible in the finish. This will be another excellent wine with 2 years of patience – and then drink happily for the following 10 or more…

2020 Chablis 1er Beauregards
Only a very small portion had elevage in barrel. Over 30-year-old vines
An airy and more vibrant nose – more mineral than citrus – but a little green-citrus is showing here too. Extra width, seemingly extra mouth-filling volume too. Layered, melting with flavour – full of flavour – extra salinity too. That’s a really lovely finish – wide and delicious.

To finish, a change of colour: