Domaine de Chambleau

Organic work between vine and cellar

Charlotte Burgat carries Pinot Noir between the rows and the cellar as winemaker at Domaine de Chambleau in Colombier, where the estate pace follows the grape. Charlotte Burgat has worked here since 2022, with a role that does not sit cleanly in one room. The vineyard asks first; the cellar answers later. At Chambleau, that means organic farming under Biosuisse standards, a stated move toward biodynamics according to Demeter, and a daily discipline built around fruit rather than correction. The Burgat family line gives the place its continuity. Louis-Philippe Burgat shaped the estate’s reputation before Charlotte took on the winemaking operations, and the work now reads as a handover rather than a break. Pinot Noir remains the variety most closely tied to her bench-side decisions, especially in Pur Sang, the cuvée drawn from the domaine’s three best parcels. The language around the estate is plain enough to hold: “We have fully devoted ourselves to organic farming and are currently aiming for conversion to biodynamics according to Demeter.” In practice, that sentence reaches from soil health to barrel choice, from the selection table to the bottle kept back before release.

Pur Sang and the time it asks

The method at Chambleau begins with selection. For Pur Sang 2022, the domaine chose fruit from its three best parcels, keeping only the finest clusters for a Pinot Noir that then spent one year in oak barrels and two years in bottle at the estate. That sequence matters because it gives structure without hurrying the wine into speech. The same cellar also works across Chasselas, Chardonnay, Merlot, Œil-de-Perdrix, sparkling wine and dessert wine, but Pinot Noir is the clearest measure of Charlotte Burgat’s station. Pur Sang 2022 was named Best Organic Pinot Noir at the Mondial des Pinots in 2025 and 2026. The estate’s Œil-de-Perdrix 2025 received 92 points at the World of Rosé, while Blanche Loye 2024, a Chasselas-based wine, received 93/100 at the Chasselas Trophy by Falstaff. Those numbers do not replace the cellar work. They point back to it. Organic farming narrows the margin for indifference, and Chambleau’s wines come from that constraint: grape first, intervention held in check, aging used as a tool rather than a signature.

A cellar above Colombier

The estate sits on a plateau above Colombier, among Neuchâtel vineyards set between the lake and the Jura foothills. From the tasting spaces, the vines remain in view; the cellar and barrel room do not feel separate from the land that feeds them. The atmosphere is conversational, with guided tastings that keep close to the wines rather than turning the room into theatre. This is a small-capacity place in feeling, even with the scale of a medium-sized family estate: the glass, the barrel, the parcel and the season stay near one another. In the room, Chambleau’s range makes sense as a working map of Neuchâtel, from Chasselas and Chardonnay through Merlot, Pinot Noir and Œil-de-Perdrix. The countryside setting does not soften the discipline. It frames it.

Neuchâtel in the glass

Chambleau also keeps company with the region’s older forms. In July 2026, the estate marked the 165th anniversary of Œil-de-Perdrix with chef Romain Vuilleumier of La Voile, pairing the rosé with lacustrine-inspired bites. That kind of evening belongs to the same craft as the cellar work, because Neuchâtel’s rosé tradition is not an accessory here. It is part of the estate’s vocabulary. The next named release is already in view: the 2023 Pur Sang is expected in November 2026, after the long patience of barrel, bottle and Pinot Noir.