Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis les Domaine Sainte Claire

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The 2012 Chablis (Domaine Sainte Claire) has a light but nicely defined, white peach-tinged bouquet with good mineralite. There is a nice touch of reduction here. The palate has a crisp entry with a fine thread of acidity. It is quite simple and direct and perhaps needs a little more matiere toward the finish. Drink now-2016. I arrived in Jean-Marc Brocard's winery with an ominous storm brewing on the horizon and hurried inside before the imminent deluge. In this capacious winery I met Julien Brocard, accompanied by cellar-master Odile Van der Moere. Julien explained the history of the winery based in Prehy that started from a single hectare owned by his father-in-law Emile Petit in the early 1970s. This was back in the days when land was far cheaper and Credit Agricole gave many young aspiring winemakers a helping financial hand. There's a bit more than one hectare under vine nowadays, with a successful negociant business running alongside. Its size has not stopped this producer from applying Rudolf Steiner's tenets in the vineyard. "We started with biodynamics in 1997 because I wanted to understand more about the diseases, to understand the causes," he explained. "There are around 200 hectares in total, of which half is organic or biodynamic, though they are processes that we are still learning about. We buy in a little fruit for the regional wines and some for the grand crus, except for Les Preuses, which is our own vineyard. We use natural yeasts and never force the malolactic." Julien told me that the 2012 crop was picked from September 26 until around October 12. I have been tasting Brocard's wines in the UK for a number of years and find that they tend to be rather laconic in their youth and repay those willing to cellar for three of four years, testified by a couple of older bottles that I tasted after the 2012s. (Readers should note the discrete significance of the labels. Those sporting a ladybird are organic and those with the moon are biodynamic.) Importer: several regional importers Verity Wine Partners (NY), Susan Chambers (LA), Elite Wine (Washington) and Berkmann Wine Cellars in UK.