Chablis Wine Not

Rue des Moulins

89800 Chablis

France

+33 6 62 14 19 39

BY NEAL MARTIN | JULY 25, 2025

The Food:

Burrata with green salad

Boeuf Bourguignon with roasted potatoes and spinach

Chocolate mousse, crème chocolat with red fruit coulis

Black cherry clafoutis

The Wine

Domaine François Raveneau - 1992 Chablis Montée de Tonerre 1er Cru (Unreleased Cuvée)

93

Fabien España is a clever fella. In 2016, he relocated his bistro, Le Souflot, from his home village of Irancy to the heart of Chablis and baptised what had been the Laroche Wine Bar as Au Fil du Zinc. The opening changed the complexion of the somewhat soporific town. Overnight, Chablis had a buzzy destination restaurant, a magnet to coax gastronomes away from Beaune. Yours truly was the restaurant’s joint first guest alongside Jasper Morris, as España invited us to road-test Chef Ryo Nagahama’s fusion menu a couple of days prior to the official opening. The dishes blew me away. I became a regular. I was surprised when España sold Au Fil du Zinc to open Chablis Wine Not, a bar à vin located a short walk away in a corner site that, if memory serves me correctly, was once a pharmacy. Chablis Wine Not was clearly built around its formidable wine list, the food not bad but playing second fiddle. However, the menu has improved immensely over the last 18 months, prompting me to pen this Vinous Table.

The interior of Chablis Wine Not.

Chablis Wine Not occupies three floors, ground and first clad in dark timber. The ground floor houses the open kitchen, a counter for quick bites and wooden tables. Top-lit shelves line the walls to display the plethora of bottles either available to drink on premise or, with a couple of exceptions, to buy at slightly cheaper prices. The upstairs provides more covers and an impressive, temperature-controlled, standalone wine cellar housing the more valuable fermented grape juice. There is also a rear extension for al fresco dining—perfect on a warm evening. The décor is modern, all dark wood, stainless steel and glass panels, its sleekness standing in contrast to the town’s rustic feel. Wine Not is aesthetically different from the surrounding environs, though there is no incongruity with the surrounding time-battered buildings.

Refreshingly, Fabien España (pictured at right) still constantly works the room, always with a smile, always chatty, always with a wine recommendation. I considered asking him to pose for a photo, but no, you are more likely to find him slicing a baguette.  

The menu is relatively simple, and that is a virtue. The menu is relatively simple, and that is a virtue. España often employs Japanese chefs. Tomoyuki Nishino and Manabu Sato, who had both worked under Nagahama at Au Fil du Zinc, presently man the stoves.

Burrata with green salad.

Too many restaurants in Beaune seem more interested in showing off over-complicated dishes to match the over-priced wines. Chablis Wine Not offers classic French fare. There are no frills. No haute cuisine. This restaurant could not care less about Michelin stars. But the food nowadays is quite delicious, and there is an attention to detail that is built into the psyche of Japanese-born chefs. During long days of tasting in Chablis, I often nip down for a cheeky plate of burrata, so fresh and enticing, perfectly seasoned with just a few green leaves. It does not need anything else.

Boeuf Bourguignon with roasted potatoes and spinach.

The main course of boeuf Bourguignon is just the ticket. The locally sourced meat is tender and flavoursome, nicely seasoned with a few carrots and shallots, and the roasted potatoes are crispy. It is the kind of dish that serves as an ideal backdrop to the wine, and it is only when mopping the plate with your bread that you realise how scrumptious it was.

Chocolate mousse, crème chocolat with red fruit coulis.

The chocolate mousse is outrageous. So decadent that I could only eat half of it, this is lavish and verging on overpowering. The black cherry clafoutis the following day was better.

The wine list is fabulous. It would wipe away anything in Beaune except for the splendid Maison de Colombier. It’s not just wines from Chablis, even though this is easily the most comprehensive selection in town. You will find temptations from around France, with gems enabled by España’s personal relationships with winemakers. I spy a 1992 Chablis Montée de Tonerre 1er Cru from Domaine François Raveneau for €240 (yes, you did read that correctly) and split the cost with my dining companion. Mature Raveneau? Yes, please. The 1992 is impressive but richer and more botrytised in style than expected. The following day, I pop in for a quick burrata (again). The waiter asks if I enjoyed the previous evening’s Raveneau, and after replying affirmatively, he enquires if I am aware of its backstory.

Tell me more…

Though not afforded a direct comparison, I think the label is slightly different from the normal one for Raveneau’s Montée de Tonnerre, just like the wine.

This bottling was different from the normal cuvée. At this time, it was fermented in one large and one smaller vat. The yeast in the latter occasionally had trouble eating the sugar and sometimes left behind 8 or 9 grams per liter. Raveneau wisely kept this separate rather than blending the lots together and presumably cracked open a bottle every now and then. España became aware of this wine’s existence, a deal was struck, and to the best of my knowledge, Chablis Wine Not is the only place you can drink it. (I am now envisaging Raveneau fans speed-dialling the restaurant.) As I mentioned, the wine is atypical for a 1992 white: deeper in colour with dried honey, beeswax, acacia, and lanolin on the enticing nose. There is something…burly about it. The palate is slightly viscous in texture, powerful and with greater density than one would expect. Forget the tension and steeliness you can find in the best ’92 Burgundy whites—this cuvée is rich yet retains acidity. After 33 years, whatever residual sugar had been floating in the wine was finally dried out or subsumed so that the finish bears some similitude to a Sauternes with mileage. Wonderful.

Chablis Wine Not is a restaurant, bar à vin, bistro, place to chill…whatever you want it to be. It is multi-functional. Do you fancy an artisan beer? No problem. Or do you want a mature Dauvissat, or Jura, or Barolo, or indeed, a mature Raveneau? Also no problem. There is nothing fussy or pretentious. Wine Not functions as a meeting point for Chablis winemakers to the point where if I don’t encounter one on every visit, there must be something wrong. On this particular evening, Christian Moreau was holding court at the neighbouring table. For wine lovers, Chablis Wine Not is a dream. How much would one of Beaune’s restaurants charge for that one-off Montée de Tonnerre? Four figures? This is a place where oenophiles can splash out and not feel ripped off. Such is España’s knowledge, passion and connections that there are numerous off-piste vinous gems awaiting discovery. Indeed, one or two have ended up in previous Vinous reports. Now that the standard of food matches the wines, this is my favourite place to eat and drink in Chablis. You never know what you might find.

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