Ch de Fleys

Béatrice Philippon and her brothers Benoît and Olivier run this historic domaine in Fleys. Each had departed for separate careers before deciding to return home upon their father’s retirement in 2006. Béatrice took over administration, Benoît the vines, and Olivier the cellar, with all three working in the vines when needed. Today they farm 79 acres of vines around Fleys on the right bank of the Serein River.
Their great-grandfather Julien Philippon came to Chablis from nearby Vézelay at the turn of the 20th century and began acquiring much of the acreage that makes up the domaine today. Vineyard land was cheap—phylloxera had just wreaked havoc—and Julien put together a polyculture farm. He had some brass in his makeup, however, for he was the first in Chablis to chance planting vines on American rootstock. He did this in 1936 with his son Louis, and today those vines produce the Domaine’s Vieilles Vignes cuvée of Mont de Milieu. Louis’s son André (the siblings’ father), was the first to bottle wine from the domaine’s grapes. It was also André who purchased the château in 1988.