Tasted with Isabelle Boussard together with daughter Margot (left), 15 May 2024.
Domaine Isabelle & Olivier Boussard
23 Chemin de Ronde
89310 Nitry
Tel: +33 3 86 33 65 87
www.domaine-boussard-chablis.fr
Another new domaine that is way off the beaten path in Chablis. Hidden away in Nitry…
Here have been 5 generations of farmers, of which Olivier is the first in a long time to grow grapes and make wine – though wine was also produced in the late 1800s. Olivier started quite young with what was once a very large domaine centred in Venoy – that was before phylloxera came along !!
They required authorisation to restart with vines but this new adventure is now approaching its 35th birthday. Their first planted vines were Bourgognes – chardonnay and pinot – then two unplanted parcels on the other side of the road in the AOC of Chablis in the commune of Beines.
I was hosted by Olivier’s wife, Isabelle, and daughter Margot whilst Olivier was on his tractor. Today’s ales are mainly in the French market but they have been growing their volume and selling more each year! Today they have 23 hectares of vines which, in a good year, produce about 180k bottles – that should be put in the context of their 400 hectares of cereal production.
On their vintages:
“We had 5% of a normal harvest in 2021 so for 6 months we had nothing at all to sell – because of that, much of the 2022 vintage is also already sold out!”
The wines…
What a delicious range of wines – from a producer of volume that I’ve never come across before…
It’s Nomacorc for the wines though they have been looking at DIAMs too – the Petit Chablis for instance – but they remain unsure because they feel that DIAMs can make the wine need a little longer ageing, and a lot of their wine is drunk young…
2022 Petit Chablis
This and the Chablis vines are in Beines
A fine an open nose – pretty and quite airily pure. Hmm, this has a lovely mouth-filling energy with a faintly grained tannin in the texture. Juicy, zesty, finishing – that’s a simply excellent wine – completely delicious…
2023(!) Petit Chablis
Here the nose is equally energetic but of a younger fruitier style. Round and a little sweeter – very young but tasty – wait another year for the same tension and ‘Chablis-ness’ as the 22 – it’s still a delicious wine.
2022 Chablis
More direct, a little more mineral and faintly green herbed and possibly some lime too. Direct, more strict than the 23 PC – but properly Chablis and minerally long. Good length and a very good wine
2023(!) Chablis
Broader with a more open fruitiness. Like the PC more obviously fruity and with more sucrosity. Large and delicious – less Chablis today but a fine energetic, tasty wine.
2022 Bourgogne Cuvée la Chaume Blanche
The first parcel planted at the domaine – very stony here. There are two cuvées from this parcel
A good depth and width of fresh, ripe fruit. Juicy again, supple with a certain generosity – almost a hybrid of the already tasted 22 and 23 wines. Absolutely delicious Bourgogne with a fine citrus style…
The same parcel as the last but with elevage on more lees – in bottle for a year now.
This is complex and shows more Chablis-style aromas than the ‘standard’ Bourgogne which is more fruity and agrume. Direct, chiselled, fine – really mineral and intense – I would undoubtedly guess Chablis blind – I think this a great Bourgogne…
In 2014 acquired 2 parcels – planted in 1988 – one chardonnay, one pinot and next to vines that they already owned – 1.55 ha of each and these are both labelled as VV and with about 50% barrel elevage, mainly 228s but a couple of 500-l too. A ‘very small’ amount of new oak too each year:
2022 Bourgogne Chardonnay Vieilles-Vignes
A small roundness of aroma but no obvious oak aromas. Rounder in the mouth – supple, plenty of generosity without losing the mouth-watering style, faintly warm from the barrel in the finish but also a little saline and savoury. Very good but I personally much prefer the style of the cuvée Camille…
(For the pinot they have a new foudre – but for the 2023 – so I’ll wait as it on fining…)
2022 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Rosé
More ample generosity to this red-fruited nose. Mouth-filling, energetic, and complex. A good and tasty wine…
2022 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Cuvée Margot
This with a diam seal…
A round and very red-fruity nose but with plenty of energy too. Hmm – that’s rather perfumed flavour too. Wide, modest sucrosity, a certain cherry style to this. Only very faintly touched by some velour finishing tannin. Delicious wine.
2022 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Vieilles-Vignes
A different parcel – the previous was next to Chaume Blanche
A little more colour here. There’s extra aromatic breadth too – darker fruit with a suggestion of graphite. Rounder, supple but open and juicy – the tannin arrives in the middle flavours but with hardly any grain and hardly any dryness either – still velour – then a small touch of warming barrel in the finishing flavours, holding quite well too.