In Beine, a wine is born not only of the weather or of the work in the vines. It takes root in a petrified Jurassic seabed. A reading of the Kimmeridgian matrix, from the plateaus to the slopes — and of what really makes the difference between one estate and the next.
Some 150 million years ago, a warm, shallow sea covered this part of the basin. Its waters sheltered countless small shells — the fossil oysters Exogyra virgula. Their accumulation fused with the grey clay muds into the Kimmeridgian marls we call Chablis chalk.
It is this marly limestone, full of fossils, that gives Chablis its salinity, its uprightness and that distinctive mineral profile. Kimmeridgian rock is the geological signature of Chablis.
On the plateau, sheltered from the wind. Shallow limestone soils, 7,700 vines per hectare, single Guyot, ten-year-old vines. The most mineral and freshest wine of the range.
Just below the plateaus, the soils are a little deeper, richer in earth and in clay. Roundness and a little body settle in, without ever losing freshness. Forty-year-old vines, 6,000 per hectare.
A parcel planted in 1949 by our grandparents, on a fully south-facing slope. Very old vines, low-yielding but with highly concentrated aromas: around 1,000 bottles a year.
It is the hand of the grower that makes the difference. Ours is there all year round: pruning, replanting, trellising, harvest, ageing, through to fining and filtration before bottling. No shortcuts. That work, and only that work, explains why two neighbouring wines are not alike.
We farm under reasoned agriculture, a completely deliberate choice. In 2024, mildew pressure was such that growers bound by strict specifications could not use strong curative products: many of them lost their crop. Under reasoned agriculture we keep the freedom to use an effective treatment when there is no other option. That is how we brought in a crop in 2024 — with fine acidity, which makes it a wine to keep.
Treatment only when necessary, to save the crop.
Soil maintenance is 100 % mechanical. We will never spread chemicals for nothing. It means more passes, more time, more fuel — but it is the only way we accept to work our living soils.
Under-vine weed removal (cavaillonnage) and inter-row cultivation, 100 % mechanical.
The same year, started afresh every spring.
We start pruning between 1 and 11 November, running until March or April depending on the year. Grapes harvested in September are in full malolactic fermentation, which ends in December; we sulphur the wines and leave them to age on their own lees.
Straight after pruning, we replant the missing vines — filling the gaps with young plants — and repair the trellis. Then the bending down, and the busiest season of the year: lifting the wires, trimming, keeping the rows in order.
The bottling month, before harvest. We empty the cellar, clean and disinfect all the equipment.
We start around 15 September, for a fortnight: 10 to 12 days on our own parcels, plus a few days of mechanical harvesting as a contractor for other growers.