What’s the difference between the French wines

March 21, 2025
11:52 pm

We love chablis, but are puzzled why petit chablis wines don’t seem to be any cheaper than regular chablis. Are we being ripped off?

— A.R., KINGSTON, ACT

Names can be misleading. Petit chablis isn’t necessarily an inferior or “smaller” wine than regular chablis. It’s simply a different appellation.

Photo: Simon Letch

Burgundy – which includes the Chablis region – is stratified into levels of quality, with grand cru at the top, then premier cru, then village, then basic bourgogne. It seems reasonable to assume that Chablis is doing something similar; after all, it also has grand cru and premier cru appellations.

Many wine-lovers assume chablis is next on the ladder (after premier cru) and petit chablis below that. But, in fact, petit chablis is simply defined by its soil, which is derived from Portlandian limestone, whereas regular chablis is on soils derived from Kimmeridgian limestone. The latter is mainly found on hillsides, while Portlandian soils are often at the top of hills.

Chablis experts tend to favour chablis over petit chablis because it’s grown on the favoured Kimmeridgian soil, where you find the grand and premier cru vineyards. Kimmeridgian rock and soil is rich in fossilised seashells.

However, soil experts point out that soils can contain mixtures of both Portlandian and Kimmeridgian elements because while rock doesn’t move, soil does, and soil can be washed down from above or pushed up from below.

I recently attended a tasting where a group of wine professionals were presented with four wines from the Chablis region, two chablis and two petit chablis, and asked to differentiate them.

Most in the audience failed, but reassuringly, so did the two chaps representing the Bourgogne Wine Board! They were winemakers François Labet and Jean-François Bordet (a Chablis producer himself). In other words, there was little or no qualitative difference, at least with this small sample of wines.

With many producers, these days there’s little price difference between the two. Happily, petit chablis has improved in quality, partly due to climate change but also an improvement in winemaking standards, which helps justify the shrinking price difference.