About Domaine Watson
Founded by a Burgundian with the misfortune of being born in the UK, Domaine Watson blends geology, wine, and the love of fishing into a very personal bottle of Burgundy. Meticulously put together, each vintage is crafted by family, friends and a stubborn insistence on doing things the hard way.
Chris Watson, an English lawyer with a license to kill practice law in Paris, planted his first vines in Burgundy in the mid '90s. Along with his wife Liz, the Watsons have been supplying their family and friends with wines from some of the most sought after terroir in the world. And what little remains after that can only be found in the hands of strictly chosen partners.
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Bridging the Channel
Chris Watson - lawyer by trade, French by accident - fell into Burgundy through cigars, fly-fishing and a Frenchman named Jean-Paul. When most people buy souvenirs in France, Chris bought a vineyard. And it only took him eight bureaucratic-filled years to do it.
With Jean-Paul’s guidance and a touch of Anglo-French diplomacy, Chris became not only a winemaker, but a local as well. No small amount of collusion within the brotherhood of Les Piliers Chablisiens saw Chris fill Britain's desperate need for a direct line to Chablis' treasures and become the only non-French winemaker within this most ancient of societies.
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I had the misfortune of being a Burgundian born in the UK.
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Our wines completely embody the values and traditions of the land from which they have emerged.
Vineyards
Domaine Watson straddles Burgundy’s northern extremes, where the soil is fossilized seafood. Kimmeridgian soils provide the perfect substrate for unique expressions of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as well as a nifty legal name for a holding company.
His Chablis vineyards sit in sun-drenched valleys that once grew nothing but frost, and the Irancy plantings take root in an amphitheater that provides the perfect amount of warmth to bake some incredible Pinot Noir - with a splash of César thrown in here and there because it just felt right.
Pioneering Spirit
Chris Watson didn’t just plant vines. He planted ideas. High-density planting, massal selection, and a polite disregard for French perceptions of the English. He sat Protestants with Catholics and let them eat cake. He did what any good Englishman abroad might do: stir things up and insist it was all perfectly civilized.
Nearly thirty years later, the locals openly admit he’s onto something. As the only foreign winemaker in Chablis’ inner wine circle, he promotes the region with irreverence, dinner parties, and occasional appearances behind the Lord Mayor’s coach.
Domaine Watson Wines
View WinesDomaine Watson wines completely embody the values and traditions of the land from which they have emerged, the crisp and mineral yet powerful Chablis to the aromatic, earthy, perfumed and distinctive Irancy.
