Ever since its founding in 1923, the co-operative La Chablisienne has been at the vanguard of the modern co-operative movement and has challenged the assumption that big (250,000 bottles/year) cannot be beautiful. Over the years, La Chablisienne has given birth to a series of wonderful, ageworthy wines that have positioned it at the top of the cooperative wine quality hierarchy; indeed, there are fewer cooperatives anywhere that make better wines than La Chablisienne. The grapes come from 300 winegrowers in the region and are vinified under the talented eye of Vincent Bartement, the 2016 IWC White Winemaker of the Year and 2016 IWSC French Producer of the Year. 

Another ace up La Chablisienne’s sleeve is the mosaic of climates, or vineyard plots, making it one of the few sources from which wine lovers can truly taste the differences between the various premier cru and Grand Cru sites of Chablis. The wines are made from a single grape variety, Chardonnay, and so differences between the wines express terroir diversity. The unique soils and microclimates of Chablis prove the right place for Chardonnay, where the most mineral examples of such wines are produced, wines of superb finesse unmatched by any other Chardonnay in the world. La Chablisienne’s range of Chablis offerings runs the gamut from, from Petit Chablis (the 2009 Petit Chablis won a silver medal at the 2011 World Chardonnay Contest) to Grand Crus, and the quality is consistently outstanding. They have established themselves as the benchmark for Chablis producers and the bar continues to be raised: we are delighted to be appointed as one of their UK distributors.