Tasted in Préhy with Léa Schaller, 06 January 2022
Domaine Orion –
2 Rue de Chantemerle
89800 Préhy
Tel: +33 6 13 76 47 26
www.domaineorion.fr
Léa Schaller is Clotilde Davenne’s closest neighbour in Préhy. Léa is a cousin of the other Schallers in Préhy – they share the same grandfather. “Our family have been farmers here for many years…”
Léa, who trained as an oenologue (winemaker) had family vines in the coop but decided to withdraw some of those vines – she’s currently working 2.45 hectares herself and is increasing the quantity each year. For now, the rest of her 10 hectares is still worked for the coop. Today she’s producing Petit Chablis and Chablis – the 2019 vintage was her first bottling of Chablis and 2020 the first with Petit Chablis. They also have Bourgogne Blanc next to the new winery but that’s not commercialised here yet.
Her new building houses a small shop – manned by Léa if there are visitors – “The vines are close enough to the shop if I’m needed,” says Léa. “With the high bulk prices of today the market is currently penalising those who bottle their own wine – it wasn’t like that when selling 2020s in bulk as it was still covid time and the prices hadn’t taken into account the impending frost of 2021…”
Léa on 2021:
“We had half a harvest in the valley vines but all those on the plateau were badly hit by the frost – including some aligoté that they also have here. We had a little porriture in some places too. It was really about following the maturity in this vintage.”
Léa on 2020:
“This was a normal harvest volume. We had some worries during the season – there are some sources of water for the vines where I currently harvest and this can trigger some oïdium but we were surprised as it stayed well under control. In the end, all went well.”
The wines…
The (now) two Schaller domaines of Préhy have very different label designs – but both are original and attractive. Léa has started very well and has delicious wines!
Bottled in July:
2020 Petit Chablis
Plenty of energy here, depth too – a little greener citrus fruit. Hmm, round, nicely shaped with a good texture. Fine layers of finishing flavour here – that’s a delicious wine.
2020 Chablis
This has a broader sweep of aroma – still a little lime-citrus but also there’s plenty of floral aspects in this width. Even nicer texture – wide with a certain fat but never rich. This delicious flavour eases over the palate. Evident finishing concentration with small waves that linger – that’s really very super, indeed excellent wine!