The young estate of Domaine du Chancelier, run by Elsa & Cédric Ehrhart, is deeply connected to the tradition and history that surrounds it. The cellars and vinification facilities are located in the historic center of Beaune in an 18th-century building that once belonged to the founder of Hospices de Beaune Nicolas Rolin and his wife Guigone de Salins. The selection of this location was deliberate on the part of the Ehrharts as a way to honor the heritage of Burgundy even as they blaze their own path forward.
Elsa and Cédric crafted their first vintage in 2016 from purchased fruit and slowly began to acquire parcels throughout Burgundy. They now have five hectares of land, and produced their first wine from their parcels in 2020. In plots where they don’t own the land, Elsa and Cédric have long-term contracts with growers where they choose the picking dates and complete harvest themselves. They practice organic farming, including with their purchased fruit, and seek to respect nature’s rhythms, preserving living soils for a pure expression of terroir.
At the winery, Elsa and Cédric have done a complete renovation and now have a state-of-the-art facility that is entirely gravity-fed. This helps reinforce their ethos of minimal manipulation of the fruit. All grapes are harvested by hand in small boxes and kept cold overnight. The whites are pressed directly, leaving the juice to oxidise slightly before being put in barrels for both fermentations. No sulfur is added, nor are the wines chaptalized or acidified. Only indigenous yeasts are used, and the juice is left its fine lees for the entirety of its aging without battonage or racking until bottling.
The reds are fully destemmed and start with a cold fermentation in a mix of stainless steel and barrel, with a few lots fermented in what is called “Vinification Integrale,” a method that allows red grapes to be fermented in the same barrel they will be aged in with gentle extraction. This technique sees 400 kilograms of grapes put in 500-liter barrels which are then closed, allowing for the fermentation to start. The grapes are then pressed and the barrels are steamed and cleaned, with the juice put back in the same barrels to go through malolactic fermentation and aging, all without the addition of sulfur.
From vineyard to cellar to bottle, the entire process at Domaine du Chancelier is meticulous and precise, as Elsa and Cédric leave nothing to chance. The result – absolutely stunning Burgundies that leave no question that a star estate has been born.
