Tasted in Lignorelles with Vincent Fabrici, 27 January 2023.

Domaine de la Tour
3 Route de Montfort
89800 Lignorelles
Tel: +33 3 86 47 55 68
www.ledomainedelatour.eu
More reports with Domaine de La Tour

Vincent on 2022:
“I will bottle some next Monday – I’ve never bottled so early. This year we were not too badly frosted – but close! The vines were less advanced than in 21 – though the frost came at the same time I was (a little!) less worried. The volume was good – you had to be very patient and wait for the maturity – there was some rain and I waited for that – in Courgis-Chitry there had already been plenty of rain – 42 mm in mid-August in this area, but in Beines there was very little. 8th September start for our harvest – the day we lost Queen Elizabeth! Waiting meant that I had a small amount of VCI, absolutely needed when you consider I had somewhere between 80 and 85% losses in 21 – that’s why we have just 2 cuvées to taste today from 21…”

Vincent on 2021:
“It was Monday 27 Sept to start the harvesting in 2021 – 4 hectares done in one day – and not an easy vineyard for not much – and that wasn’t the fastest – I was done on Thursday, all 14 hectares. I joked with my workers that I didn’t want to harvest in October! I sold most in bulk because there was more to earn from that than selling in bottle. I had just four cuvées – these two and some aligoté and Petit Chablis, both were sold out in December – I thought I bottled very early in 21 – some in March but I’m ahead of that for the first 22s… A maturity of 10-11° was common, closer to 11.5° for the 1er but the fermentations went largely without a problem and I used a little sugar too.”

The wines…

Hard to judge from just 2 wines but the ‘Mont-Mains’ was delicious – what a 22 Aliogoté in waiting too!

All ‘natural’ cork here – “I find more quality here – I test the synthetic alternatives – but so far I prefer cork:”

2021 Chablis
A fine freshness – a sweet and attractive invitation. There’s some herb here but lots of flavour energy. Not quite pyrazine but close. Energetic and mineral, quite a tasty glass.

2021 Chablis 1er Mont-Mains
Over 3 hectares in Butteaux
A calmer nose, good width – that’s a nice invitation, faintly floral too. Hmm – cool – more architectural, I like the texture and shape here – slowly growing with intensity. Here is an altogether more classy wine, slowly fading with an extra width of mineral notes. That’s a more than very good wine – a super wine which I could already start drinking!

And as they will have a first bottling in less than 1 week:

2022 Bourgogne Chitry
More direct and with some fresh lime. Extra gas here but also a fuller and meltingly delicious, more generous delivery of flavour. Ooh – that’s a bit non-standard for Chitry but it’s absolutely delicious wine.

2022 Petit Chablis
Vines in Courgis
More incisive, a trace of the exotic in this agrume fruit. Supple, quite some cushioned generosity for the vintage. Fuller finishing – that should be very good.