Tasted in Lignorelles with Arnaud Lavantureux, 18 January 2024.
Domaine Roland Lavantureux
4 Rue Saint-Martin
89800 Lignorelles
Tel: +33 3 86 47 53 75
www.chablis-lavantureux.fr
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Arnaud on 2023:
“Very happy – eventually an unfrosted vintage! All is now in a good direction. We had rain everywhere in 2023 – it properly replenished the water-table.”
Arnaud on 2022:
“There was a little frost but only a little and there was any way the potential for a lot of grapes after 2021, so we are now in good shape. We have thought for a number of years – can the vines actually produce? 2018 said yes but when was the last time we had two consecutive good volume vintages? – I haven’t seen it before. And, fortunately, the wines are good too, indeed, I think they are magnificent in 2022.”
The wines…
Like/dislike of oak – or particular styles of oak – is highly subjective. I’m not a big fan of the smoky character of the oak used by this domaine – which means I would keep the wines at least 2 years before drinking to let those aromas and flavours fade. But what a simply great, chiselled, precise but not a bit austere selection of wines. One of my producers of the vintage – bravo!
All the 2022 has been bottled – the last was done in December 2023. Natural cork is used here, nothing peroxide treated. Wax topped from the Vauprin onwards:
Here is the only wine that with 100% stainless-steel for all vinification and elevage. All from Lignorelles
A pretty nose – not large scale but of good width. Mouth-filling but fluid and complex – that’s really great in the mouth – a nose short of great wine but clearly great PC today!
And now a new wine:
2022 Bourgogne Tonnerre
Kimmerigian soil here but a wine with a bit more richness
Deep, mineral, rewarding – that’s a great invitation. Mouth-filling like the PC but all is supported by a vibration of minerality but it’s a darker, almost reductive, smoky, minerality than you find in the Petit Chablis. Different and excellent – it’s long too.
All the domaine’s wines are vinified parcel by parcel – this comes from a single parcel in Lignorelles but a big parcel of 5ha and it’s the biggest cuvée of the domaine. 30% barrel elevage a mix of 350 and 228s.
Fresh, saline, faintly cushioned invitation. Incisive – pure – what a super start, lots of salinity. Ultra-classic, great villages!
3 parcels in Lignorelles – vines planted by grandfather – 50-60-year-old vines. 40% barrel – a mix of sizes but nothing new, indeed about 5-year-old barrels
A small but still deep nose – yellow citrus with an accent of honey at the base. Also cool, direct and in this case even more vibrant. More energy and certainly more finishing intensity – that’s great too but wait 2-3 years for this one – there’s a small creamy accent of the barrel in this finish but it will be gone in that timescale. Bravo!
Now 50% barrel elevage – a little new starting to creep into the mix now.
Wider and more floral – more airy than powerful – but a great invitation to take a sip. Also crystalline, so mineral, yes the yellow-gold style of fruit but this isn’t tipping over into ‘honey.’ Bravo!
No, not my bad spelling, this is a villages climat – a high parcel in Lignorelles, south, south-east facing, but 300m high so cool and exposed.
Larger scale there’s a more overt minerality to this nose. Chiselled – this wine was designed for that word. Clean, pure only faintly – but attractively – oaked. Wait two years for the oak to fade – or take the slightly softer experience today – a great Chablis! Rolling waves of finishing flavour here.
Too steep for animals here and slippy too – so everything is done by hand. Similar exposure to Vauprins, but at a lower altitude, virtually no soil here vs plenty in Beauroy, and what there is here is much whiter. Half with barrel elevage.
The citrus complexity is most overt on this nose – a hint of smoky barrel too. Cool, ultra-pure – mineral-citrus hybrid. Class! My new favourite! Not exactly strict – but so direct!
Bought. Steep and south-facing here
A wider nose – almost panoramic – some generosity to the fruit but it’s never lacking clarity. Yes! Intense, melting, pure mineral – what a great wine – no extraneous richness – just mineral concentration – you could say molten rock if it wasn’t so cool-flavoured! Great wine!
A modest change of colour:
Fourth vintage here. Old vines from grand-father – around 50 years old.! ‘We are very strict with the rendement.’
A wow nose – the smoky oak used here distracts me slightly in the young whites but here you have the impression it fulfils a need and is almost like an extension of a whole cluster aromatic – and below the fruit is very appealing too. Hmm – this has a fine fresh shape in the mouth – architectural but the fruit is sweetly attractive – slightly darker fruited – very long too. I don’t really see ‘Epineuil’ but I do see a great wine – bravo – the best red of my tour without a doubt!