Wines

From Les Lys, Montmains and Vaudevey. The grapes are farmed organically. Juice purchased at the time of pressing, so fermentation, aging and all besides vineyard work is under their watch. Fermented in barrel with native yeast. Aged for 18 months on the lees using integral fermentation (in a sealed barrel with no fining or filtration).

With vintage 2022, the label name changed from L'Incontournable to Grande Chaume. This always comes from five acres in the lieu-dit of Grande Chaume bordering the 1er cru of Les Fourneaux, facing south-southwest. Roughly one-third of this is raised in one to three-year-old Burgundy barrels, the rest in steel.

The wine ferments in stainless steel tanks. Native yeast. The wine is then matured on fine lees until bottling in the following June. No malolactic fermentation.

From the importer: Defaix’s “Côte de Lechet” is a master class in mineral precision. This remarkably steep site (a 45% gradient) with very poor soil produces a wine that Danny describes as embodying “the real, true mineral expression of Chablis.” Freshly blasted chalk dominates the nose, with notes of lemon, honey, and fresh herbs lurking underneath; still, this is a wine of minerality first and foremost. The family owns a 3.5-hectare parcel of 45-year-old vines in this distinctive cru, most of which are planted within a parcel known as the Clos des Moines.

92-94 Points! The 2021 Chablis Le Bas de Chapelot comes across quite closed on the nose, though Edouard Vocoret mentioned how this cuvée has closed down at the time of my visit. The palate is complex with touches of apricot and white peach, plenty of minerals and flint, focused with a long tail on the finish. This is apparently mercurial during its barrel maturation but this bodes well. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

From a parcelof less than an acre. This Montmains comes from the Butteaux part of the appellation, right in front of the village of Courgis. The vines are old, planted in the late 1950s.

96 Points! The 2023 Chablis 1er Cru La Forest is nothing short of superb in bottle and ranks among the year's most authoritative wines. A pure, marine-inflected opening—iodine, lemon peel and oyster liquor mingled with beeswax and dried apricot—precedes a concentrated yet tensile palate of taut muscularity. Bright acidity and abundant chalky extract lend the wine a bracing, kinetic edge, culminating in an intensely saline, persistent finish. Dauvissat here once again affirms its status as one of the site's greatest interpreters. - Kristaps Karklins, robertparker.com

92 Points! The 2023 Chablis—sourced chiefly from vineyard parcels that border La Forest—continues to distinguish itself as one of the finest examples in its category. Its bouquet weaves together citrus oils, pear and white peach. The medium- to full-bodied palate is ample and textural, displaying considerable depth and energy that persist through to a long, sapid finish. While it can—and undoubtedly will—be approached young, it possesses all the prerequisites for graceful evolution, bearing in mind that a wine’s longevity depends not on the vineyard-site name alone but on the way it is worked and made. - Kristaps Karklins, robertparker.com

98 Points! The 2020 les Clos from Monsieur Dauvissat is every bit as brilliant as the les Preuses. The nose soars from the glass in a blend of apple, pear, lime zest, a stunning base of flinty, chalky, wet stone minerality and oyster shell, vanillin oak and a topnote of fruit blossoms. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and shows off a gorgeous core of fruit, but the real beauty here is in the stunningly complex base of minerality, coupled with vibrant acids, impeccable focus and grip and a very, very long, dancing and seamlessly balanced finish. - John Gilman, View From The Cellar