We first visited Jean-Claude Bessin in 2008, and it has been a pleasure to follow this producer’s evolution into one of the great domaines of Chablis. Today, Bessin Tremblay carries the highest, three-star rating in France’s leading wine guide (the Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France of Review du Vin de France) along with only three other domaines, and William Kelley rates them in the top six Chablis producers. It’s fair to say that Jean-Claude Bessin got the estate off to a great start, and his sons Romain and Antoine have taken it to a whole other level of brilliance.

The domaine’s origins date to the late ’80s, when Jean-Claude Bessin and Evelyn Tremblay took back the vineyards of Evelyn’s father, who had been working with the local co-operative. Neither had any experience as a vigneron—Jean-Claude was an architect and his wife a pharmacist—but Bessin quickly revealed himself as an inspired vigneron. He set a template of traditional, pre-war Chablis, reducing chemicals, hand harvesting yields that were a fraction of his neighbours’, opting for spontaneous ferments and aging in casks. At the time, these practices were almost unheard of.

In 2015, Jean-Claude and Evelyn’s son, Romain, came home to work at the estate. Rake thin and with an impressive Woodstock-era head of hair, he was a prodigiously talented jazz drummer who graduated from the Conservatoire in Paris. Romain’s arrival heralded a shift towards organic viticulture, and the domaine was certified in 2019. He then started with biodynamics ‘in principle’, a progression he believes brings even more vitality and energy to the fruit.

He couldn’t wish for a better partner in that pursuit than his brother, Antoine, who joined in 2021 (the year their father, Jean-Claude, retired). Highly intelligent and thoughtful, Antoine has a biochemistry background, with his studies and experience centring on soil life and plant-based therapies. Pretty handy know-how to bring to a modern wine estate! Together, the brothers have continued their father’s work but kicked it up several notches.

“Bessin, as he puts it, loves the acidity and tension of Chablis on the condition that it’s paired with substance and flesh, a philosophy that’s admirably translated into practice in the form of wines with cut and concentration, texture and definition.” William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

It’s always a good sign when a grower turns up for your meeting in a tractor. The Bessins’ vines are some of the most fastidiously tended in Chablis. They practice organics and some biodynamics and have a large proportion of old vines. This obviously encourages yields that are on the low side, as well as wines with depth and character. Harvesting is done by hand, and the brothers employ native yeasts and extended aging on fine lees (up to 18 months) in neutral oak—enabling the wines to gain in density, complexity and flesh as they age. The wines are only lightly filtered if necessary (using bentonite), and the domaine uses the barest amount of sulphur.

Based in the hamlet of La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne, north of Chablis, the domaine farms 12 hectares of predominantly old vines, with any replanting undertaken using mass-selection cuttings. The village Chablis covers five hectares (all within La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne), with over half qualifying for the emblematic Chablis Vieilles Vignes. For the 1er Cru, there is Fourchaume and Montmains, from which (since 2006) a Forêt has been bottled separately. A special, old-vine Fourchaume is labelled as La Pièce au Comte. Finally, the family has a precious, well-sited two-hectare slice of Valmur, where the oldest vines date back to 1947.

The quality and style of the wines remind us that Chablis is indeed part of Burgundy! The wines are textured and layered, yet equally mineral, chiselled and ageworthy. In short, these wines can sit proudly alongside the best wines of Puligny or Chassagne. In Chablis, they are perhaps closest in style to the greatest wines of Vincent Dauvissat. However, they have their own persona, reflecting the specific vineyards and the precision of the work in the vines and cellar. This is Chablis we cannot recommend highly enough.