Tasted with Louis Poitout, pictured also with Catharine, in Chablis, 12 January 2023
Domaine L&C Poitout
3 rue du Serein
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 9 79 61 62 16
www.lc-poitout.fr
More reports with L&C Poitout
Louis on 2022:
“Of course, I’m happy – there was volume! At this stage, the quality looks good too! The fermentations went not just well, they went fast.”
Louis on 2021:
“2021 it’s the smallest vintage we’ve had here – certainly less than in 2016 or 2017 – so now we’ve had three consecutive small vintages. We lost 60% hence, it’s the worst that I can recall – thank goodness we can breathe after the 22s. They are not just all bottled there are practically all sold too!”
The wines…
Always excellent wines here – sometimes great – it’s the same in 2021.
DIAM-style for most wines but not the 1ers, which use cork. All the wines bottled:
A little touch of apple and much salinity and freshness – that’s a super invitation. A little direction and a lot of energetic clarity – finishing saline again – that’s a dangerous wine – it will be drunk far too quickly. Bravo!
2021 Petit Chablis Sycamore
Over 6 hectares of PC at the domaine in two parcels. Mainly planted 1988-89 above Les Clos. No wood, no batonnage.
Good freshness and yellow citrus – here there is still vibrancy but more chalky minerality too. A wine that slowly vibrates through the finishing flavour. Simply excellent.
2021 Chablis Bienommé
From Villy, but the Chablis parcels of the domaine extend to 10 hectares – the soil, planting date and age of vines is exactly the same as the next wine but the exposure to the sun is different. This east-facing.
Much wider and more floral. Hmm, this is super – there’s energy but it’s not too excitable – complex but pure and beautiful – more clarity. Fine little complex intensities too – this I love!
2021 Chablis Bonaugure
From Maligny, planted between 1989 and 1991.
A more vertical, mineral base – a little white flower. A faint gas, fuller in the mouth with a little more exuberance – more intense and saline in the finish. Excellent wine – only that I have a little style preference for the previous.
2021 Chablis Vieilles-Vignes Les Vénérées
This the domaine’s old-vine parcel – the youngest part is 40 years-old – the rest with plantation dates between 1946 and 1960
A hint of ripeness again and a small width of vibration that’s a little mineral. More mouth-watering, certainly obviously more Chablis in the strongly mineral and saline wine. There’s a small austerity here that’s not present in the previous wines but this is very Chablis – wait 2-3 years before attacking and it will be , at least, excellent.
Yellow citrus nose – more zesty than the previous wines – almost textural. Hmm – that’s wonderful on the palate – fluid, mobile, pure and with just a hint of attractive strictness. Love – bravo!
2021 Chablis 1er Vaucoupin Stellaris
Extra mineral, extra complexity, fine clarity again becoming invitingly perfumed. Hmm – love this intensity – there’s a bit of herb in this complexity – but complex it is. Almost a little creaminess to this finishing flavour too. I find this a beauty!
2021 l’Inexstinct
Age unknown – potentially oldest vines in Chablis as there is no graft / franc de pied – ‘tastes different so decided on VdF’ a 0.55 ha parcel near Villy. Bottled 6 months ago – first time tasted since the bottling.
Different, concentrated and intense but not as massively different an aromatic as in some previous years. Really mouth-filling – silky, growing more velvet as some tannin frames these silky generous flavours. Slowly mouth-watering – really fine, clean directions/dimensions of flavour – always modestly saline. Really a wine of class – and tastes really well after the 1ers – not an easy thing in such an easy vintage to see the differences in the levels of the wines.