The Eternal Hill
About forty-five kilometres south of Chablis, the Vézelay vineyard surrounds the hill crowned by the Basilica of Sainte-Madeleine, across four communes. Long vinified as a regional appellation, then under the designation "Bourgogne-Vézelay" for its chardonnay whites, it rose to the rank of a stand-alone village appellation in 2017.
Terroir and Style
The clay-limestone soils of Jurassic origin — Kimmeridgian, some 150 million years old — bring Vézelay close to Chablis, as does its semi-continental climate with long, cold winters and sunny summers, exposed to spring frosts and hailstorms. On this terroir, chardonnay gives well-balanced, powerful, full-bodied whites, with a lovely richness and generous volume, often aged on the lees. A charming, rounder gateway into the great whites of Basse-Bourgogne.