Domaine William Fèvre

Few Chablis addresses let a visitor taste across the whole appellation ladder in one room. The estate bottles Petit Chablis, three village wines, nine premiers crus and six grand cru labels drawn from five of the seven Chablis Grand Cru climats. Tasting is by appointment, and the estate publishes hours the year round rather than opening only in season.

The estate describes a tasting space in the centre of Chablis given over to the grands vins of the appellation, with staff guiding the tasting. Visits run by appointment, arranged through an availability form rather than an online basket. The published material sets out hours, seasons and closures but no tasting tariff, so the cost of a visit is agreed when the appointment is confirmed.

March to November brings the longer day, 09:30 to 18:30, plus the published Sunday slot of 11:00–16:00. Thursday callers should plan around the 12:30–13:30 closure. Winter visits still work: December to February keeps Monday to Saturday hours, though the room shuts for two hours at midday. Two dates are firmly out: Friday 1 May, and the annual closure running 18 December 2026 to 3 January 2027.

The published address is 10 rue Jules Rathier, 89800 Chablis, and the estate places itself in the centre of the town. Chablis Grand Cru is grown mainly in the commune of Chablis itself, with the rest at Fyé and Poinchy, so the ranked slopes lie in and around the same commune as the tasting space. Telephone contact is +33 (0)3 86 18 14 37.

Domaine William Fèvre works 70 hectares of Chablis, split into 90 separate parcels, from a base at 10 rue Jules Rathier in the town centre. The estate has belonged to Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) since January 2024. It receives visitors by appointment in a tasting space given over to the grands vins of Chablis, and describes itself as the largest owner of grands crus.

The estate counts about 250 years of existence, but the name is recent: William Fèvre took over the family domaine in 1959 and gave it his own first name. Ownership changed again in January 2024, when Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite took the estate over, placing it in the same group as Château Lafite Rothschild and, among others, Duhart-Milon, Rieussec, L'Évangile and Los Vascos.

The holding sits on the steep stony slopes either side of the river Serein, on ground the estate dates to more than 150 million years. It describes its Kimmeridgian as an alternation of marls and marly limestones, and credits that alternation for the mineral character and freshness of Chablis. The appellation body records the same soils carrying small fossil oysters of the species Exogyra virgula.

The barrel policy is the thing worth asking about. Rather than new oak, the estate works with seasoned barrels averaging six years old, chosen to keep freshness and minerality rather than add flavour. Two of the seven grand cru climats are missing from the range, Blanchot and Grenouilles, so a visitor wanting the full grand cru set has to look beyond this cellar for those two.