This viticultural treasure discovered by chance now provides fruit for Catherine and Louis Poitout’s high-end label. - crédit photo : Clément L'Hôte
 
The block of vines bought in 2012 by Louis and Catherine Poitout in Villy, within the Petit Chablis appellation area, is unique on more than one count. It had even been pruned using a chainsaw! “When we bought it, no other buyers had come forward. We knew it had been pruned and maintained in a fairly unorthodox way and initially we considered uprooting it”, recounts Catherine Poitout. “As we began farming it, we soon realised there was something special about it. The canes growing from the base of the vines bore fruit… We quickly assumed they were own-rooted vines and this was rapidly confirmed by technicians. It all became crystal clear”.

 It is probably the only vineyard block of its kind in the whole of Chablis, but there were more surprises to come. “As soon as we made the first batch of wines, we realised that this block would not produce ordinary Chardonnay. The wine is particularly ample, complex and fat with impressive tears. In a blind tasting, nobody would guess it came from Chablis”. The style is one that Louis Poitout ascribes to several potential factors: “The lack of grafting, and therefore filters, undoubtedly promotes site-expressiveness. The genetic quality of the vines must also play a part, as well as their old age”.

 

 Putting a date on when they were planted though is a tall order. “We have very few archives and it is impossible to date them by analysing the vines due to the way they have been pruned up until now. They could be 150 or 200 years old, it is possible”. Whatever the date, they are resistant to phylloxera: “When we examined the soil profiles, we soon realised why. The first soil horizon in the sub-soil is a particularly dense layer of clay which soaks up water. The roots have managed to push through it, but aphids cannot live there”.

Source: Vitisphere