The Vinification at Château Daniel-Etienne Defaix

Our Style is special and needs a lot of secrets and attentions:
- Harvest at good maturity and eliminating by sorting all green grapes or eventual dry rotten.
- Slow pressuring of 3 hours and separation the cuvées and keeping only the « Têtes de Cuvées ».
- 18 hours or static raking of the best, natural and carefully.
- 3 weeks of alcoholic fermentation in natural environment (natural yeast) at low temperature (18°C) to preserve the natural glycerol form the grape and this floral aspect.
- Malolactic fermentation is systematic in order to avoid all risks of fermentation in bottle.


The Unic Style of the Vieux Château Daniel-Etienne Defaix

The bâtonnage on fine lies inside the wine is made all month during 18 months, without Sulphite, uniquely with the carbonic gas kept from the malolactic fermentation.
This autodestruction of the lies, named « autolyse », enriches the wine with good aromas from the original soil.
Its gives to the wine bigger amplitude by ageing, tertiary aromas and fresh fruits. But also a perfect structure for keeping with the “gras” and increasing its aromatic persistence and its potential of rétro-olfaction... Filtration and fining are not systematic (We don’t remove the things we are waiting for…) and the bottling is made under nitrogen.



The wines are kept between 6 or 12 months in our chai of vinification before selling. At this point, The Chablis is 2 years old and the Premiers crus are between 4 to 6 years old.




chablis.com