Tasted in Maligny with Jean-Paul Durup, 25 January 2023.

Domaine Jean Durup et fils
4 Grande Rue
89800 Maligny
Tel: +33 3 86 47 44 49
www.domainesdurup.com
More reports with Domaine Jean Durup

Jean-Paul Durup on 2022 & 2021:
“2022 was very good and also very different to 2021. 22 was more like 2017 or the generosity of the 2018s with a little lower acidity – for us, it wasn’t a very large harvest but 50 hl/ha which was double of what we managed to produce in 2021. In 2021, 24 hl/ha was our return – and practically all the wines are sold, just a few 1er crus remain. Ah, but the ‘associated materials’ – It’s the first time in my life I’ve needed to increase prices solely because of all the packaging costs!”

The wines…

After the inconsistency of the last couple of vintages – here is a really impressive – and consistent – range of 2021s. There are some great wines in this range – such a shame – for me – that my favourite wine had a small touch of pyrazine!

All these wines see only tank elevage – and all the wines are bottled:

2021 Petit Chablis
Seven different communes – the largest ‘independent’ owner in PC with around 30 hectares. Largely above Blanchots and above Maligny and above Troisemes
A faintly savoury – DIAM(?) nose – yup. Opening and freshening up quite quickly in the glass. Round, attractive, mouth-watering – nice ripe fruit at the core – yellow citrus. Very easy to drink, finishing with some proper minerality. Very good.

2021 Chablis
130 ha – 11 communes.
Direct, lemon fruit style – with an airy style. Good. Mouth-filling, good energy – plenty of additional salinity too. That’s open easy, with a nicely agrumed style in the finish. It holds well too.

2021 Chablis La Vigne de la Reine
All from Maligny – Vallée Mignotte about 3.5 Hectares – ‘less typical Chablis, more elegant and floral’
Yes, that’s a nicely floral nose. Broad, more incisive, juicy wine – that’s lovely with a very fine agrume-soup complexity. Excellent wine, rounder in the finish and far too easy to drink.

2021 Chablis Marche du Roi
A south-east-facing quite steep hillside. This separated in 2003. Here was the border between ‘France’ and ‘Burgundy’ ran through this valley – Maligny was French, not Burgundian – hence the Marche du Rois..
Broader, stronger more mineral width of aroma. That’s very nice in the mouth – mobile, energetic, not concentrated but there is more than enough complex interest to make up for that – a little more chalky Chablis style – and again that’s a lovely wine. Fine length here.

2021 Chablis Carré de Cesar
Vines in Maligny – a little less than 2.5 Ha – same soil and exposure to Vigne de la Reine but a different wine, Portlandian and in a more open valley.
That’s fine – a vibrant almost reductive, nobly reductive, nose. Rounder, silky, there’s a more overt concentration here but so mouth-watering. The citrus is a little more golden. Very different again, with a more discrete finishing style.

2021 Chablis Vieilles-Vignes
The youngest for 1942 the oldest from 1905… Multiple parcels a large part in Villy with smaller amounts from others, totalling 6 hectares
Hmm – that’s a lovely floral freshness in the first wave of aromas – the citrus is yellow but almost tending to the exotic. Mouth-filling, generous wine but never heavy – the intensity slowly growing, with the supple flavours majoring on the citrus fruit. The finish is broad and persistent – much more mineral – a wine that’s more contemplative but never heavy. Lovely…

2021 Chablis 1er Vau de Vey
Was abandoned for generations after phylloxera due to the difficulty of cultivating. Father in 78 was the first to replant. Have 8 hectares here.
Ooh – that’s a lovely nose – a type of tension, a vibrancy of aroma. Direct, cool, cut from stone, extra-mouth-watering citrus complexity – more grapefruit than lime/lemon – chalky finishing. Simply excellent wine!

2021 Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnere
2 hectares here – 2 parcels, both in Chapelots
An airy, energetic width – that’s very fine. Hmm – fuller, finely structured full of energy even a little mouthwatering sucrosity to this citrus – slowly fading with a slightly chalky texture again. Super wine again…

2021 Chablis 1er Montmains
0.54 ha in two parcels – small for here – at the entrance of the valley – ‘It’s less mineral here than in the middle of the valley.’
Quite a ripeness to the first yellow citrus notes but then the wine slowly fixes on a more mineral width. Vibrant and energetic – fluid in style – always moving – it’s not the Montmains that I was expecting but it’s a fabulous wine of energy and salinity and complexity.

2021 Chablis 1er Reine Mathilde
A blend of 1ers made since 2003, not always the same blend. A different label for this wine. ‘I was initially against – doesn’t it banalise the notion of the individual 1ers – but in the end, it is indeed more complete.’
Less open in the top notes but broader and fuller in the bass line – slowly adding some of those missing – and inviting – top notes. Extra width, a little more intensity too. Open and energetic, that’s a wine that’s almost fluid and certainly deliciously, directly, citrussy direct in the finishing flavours – clean finishing flavours. Quite a calm finish considering the energy that went before – lots of impact from this super wine – finishing with more calm…