Bernard Defaix

Hailing from a family of winegrowers, Bernard Defaix set up his eponymous domaine in 1959 with just 2 hectares. Even allowing for the fact that the area under vine in Chablis was tiny back then compared to today’s level (about 20% of what it is today) there’s no denying that Bernard started small! Still, from tiny acorns, great oak trees grow, and today his son, Didier runs the estate, working along his brother, Sylvain, and wife, Hélène. His nephew has also recently joined the fold following some time in winegrowing regions in other parts of the world and so the next generation is gradually being infused into the domaine.

Farming organically, the estate manages 27 hectares that it owns and a further 10 that it buys fruit from through long longstanding arrangements with growers. 20 hectares of the domaine consist of various parcels of straight Chablis (12 hectares) and an important holding in the 1er Cru Côte de Lechet (8 hectares). The wines are about as definitively Chablis as you could wish for, bursting with vivacity and classical Chablis minerality.