Tasted in Beine with Team Louis Moreau, 25 January 2022.
Domaine Louis Moreau
10, Grande rue
89800 Beines
Tel: +33 3 86 42 87 20
www.louismoreau.com
More reports with Domaine Louis Moreau
On 2021:
“The volume was not very good here – all the vines direction Viviers of course but also here in Beauroy/Beine… Harvesting from 21st in 9 days and that went well.”
On 2020:
“It’s a lovely vintage. Some stress only because everything was so early – but flowering was rapid and good – we sawonly a little frost but it was very dry at this time in March so not much damage. Of course, it was a very dry year, there was some roasting of the grapes – less volume than we had hoped but it’s likely that this was because of the dryness. The maturity and the acidity were very balanced. We’d accept this every year! As for the commercial situation, it’s something we just don’t know in Chablis – all is sold/reserved… ”
The wines…
I have always enjoyed the purity that this domaine brings to their wines. In 2020 a few are really worth a special search.
Just a few wines are in bottle but the rest of the wines are (mainly) assembled and waiting in tank. There are 50,000 bottles of Petit Chablis here in a normal year, using a high percentage of screw-caps. Across the rest of the range, they are now using DIAMs; 3, 5 and 10, plus some similar agglomerates from Trescasses:
2020 Petit Chablis
Bottled. The major part is Beines towards Lignorelles on the plateau. Some above Les Clos too but that’s the smaller part.
A compact but attractively pure yellow-citrus nose. Fine in the mouth, direct, juicy, very mouth-watering with a fine citrus finish. Delicious – small citrus bitters to finish too…
2020 Chablis
Bottled. Usually about 25 hectares worth of vines. 80% from around Beine, the rest from the communes of Fleys and Chablis
A hint less width but here’s a more vibrantly mineral nose. Extra energy, vibrant, a suggestion of green but just a super wine. It’s just so mouth-watering in the finish – lovely…
Not yet bottled, like the GCs – all organic, hand-harvested 50-year-old vines, all done the same as the 1er and GCs.
Compact but airy – this has a very pure but very reticent nose. Wider, more pure, a little fat but fresh and fluid – that’s really beautiful over the palate – it’s just a nose short of great today – lovely with citrus bitters in the finish. Potentially great!
2020 Domaine de Biéville, Chablis
From Viviers – 18km east of Beines. In the family since the 70s. South facing, on the plateau, not planted for a long time, pure Kimmerigian terroir. Bottled in November
A more open, airy and finely attractive nose. Plenty of complexity here – some greens included. Wide and growing more intense – this for keeping a little while – lovely energy and impressively long. Wait 2 years…
Nothing that follows is bottled:
2020 Chablis 1er Vau Ligneau
Back to Beine, more north, north-east facing.
There’s a riper lemon-style citrus – but not golden – almost a hint of pineapple and grapefruit agrume. The same mix of fruit on the palate too. Freshly mineral, properly fresh and ‘Chablis’ but different fruit. Wide with a little burst of flavour too. That’s a delicious and properly concentrated but fresh wine, finishing with a little phenolic texture, a tannin…
2020 Chablis 1er Les Fourneaux
From true Fourneaux. 4 hectares.
Really open – fresh, rewarding, more golden citrus – airy and attractive. Hmm, – here is presence – incisive, very mineral, growing in weight, complex, mouth-watering, finishing with a more evident salinity. Not yet fully delicious – but close. A generous but fresh wine. It’s already excellent and should improve further – it’s so long…
2020 Chablis 1er Vaillons
2 hectares at the base/heart of Vaillons, vines now 58-years-old. All the work made in an organic way, HVA certified.
Less impact, more floral and more airy in style. More direct, very mineral but with such ease over the palate – elegant almost. A wine of real finesse – holding in a haunting manner. Probably never a ‘strong’ wine but certainly an excellent one!
2020 Chablis Blanchot
Since 2018 only small stainless steel tanks – no wood – this the most east-facing of these grand crus. Only 500-litres of this…
Not much aromatic width to start but plenty of weight. Wide and growing in intensity – there’s some richness here but balanced by the bubbling energy and minerality of this wine. Broad and satisfying in the finish – very persistent.
2020 Chablis Les Clos
Plain-south-facing.
There’s also density here, showing a little extra white-flower perfume. A hint of gas. More open architecture, more citrus bitters. A beautiful finish, complex and saline. A beauty…
2020 Chablis Clos des Hospices
A fuller nose – lots of energy, salinity and citrus complexity too. Even more CO2 but here is more mouth-filling and richer at the same time. Different rather than better, wide, slow-moving waves of finishing flavour, the minerality showing more structural.
A tighter nose yet with a lovely purity – that’s really lovely. Gas. Gorgeously wide and mineral – there’s a fluidity to the flavour here that make this a great wine. The finish mounts but it’s a little more structural and like many here with plenty of citrus bitters. Complete wine…
A smaller nose again but pure and airy – it’s still a great invitation. Also a wine that is very fuid in style – more direct, more overtly mineral, but no hard edges, elegant and composed yet still almost juicy. Another practically complete wine – yet different! Bravo again – and so long!