Tasted in Maligny with Pierrick Laroche, 25 January 2024.
Domaine Des Hâtes
5 Chemin des Hâtes
89800 Maligny
Tel: +33 6 73 67 33 47
More reports with Domaine des Hâtes
Pierrick on 2023:
“I’m very happy with 2023. Maybe it’s not as great as 22 – which I think exceptional – but 23 will be tasty, perhaps in the style of 2018. ”
Pierrick on 2022:
“Yes, I like 22 a lot – we had very good maturity, already starting to harvest on the 31st August – you might think that would bring something heavy but we have lovely balance – the freshness was a lovely surprise – making one of the nicest vintages I can think of in the last 10 years – and we have enough to sell too!! In 22 we made the volume and in some parts with VCI too – hardly anything plus though.”
The wines…
A very classy range from Pierrick in 2022 – there are a few wines worth a special search.
Started with some screw-caps for export – depending on the client – the rest of the range is with DIAM. Apparently, Pierrick’s customers appreciate these screwcaps and the volume is already interesting – nearly 25% of his export. The wines all bottled from April – July for Petit Chablis and from April to a bit later for the Chablis – 2 bottlings for the Petit, and three for the Chablis:
Only Maligny – 2 terroirs – a plateau that has a lot of clay – like in Lignorelles – plus limestone slopes, south, south-east-facing – here it’s more mineral. But the parcels are quite close to each other. About 20-year-old vines. This cuvée is from 12 hectares so easily the biggest cuvée here – ‘it has to be good!’
Open with plenty of higher toned freshness. Concentrated and silky – there’s a lot of wine here – supple, hiding to an extent its minerality, but only partly. Finishing mineral and precise. I’d be waiting a couple of years for it to grow a bit more focus – but then it could be a great one – really the concentration of a very good Chablis.
2022 Chablis
Also only from Maligny here.
A more concentrated, more visible width of ripe yellow citrus. Cooler entry more direct wine, the minerality more visible but also silky with a mm or two of cushion. So mouth-watering, almost juicy in the end. Already more classic than the Petit Chablis – that’s excellent wine – the finish is so long.
Not made in 2020 – a plateau (below the PC) that’s got a lot of limestone – above Homme Mort – 50-year-old vines – the oldest parcel of the domaine – a part (50%) 600-litre barrel elevage.
Less impact and more airy aromas. More direct again and clearly more mineral and incisive – the most classic of all so far. A hint of barrel – so wait another year or two before drinking but this is a properly great villages. The finish just so persistent.
2022 Chablis 1er Beauroy
Bought in must, again with 50% barrel elevage with a majority of 600-litre barrels.
Not a large nose but an attractively perfumed one. Clean, incisive flavour – that’s so good! The barrel very modestly in the background. Fine finishing waves of flavour – what a delicious wine and certainly a small step up again from the Chatillons!
2022 Chablis 1er Vau de Vey
‘Beauroy has the sun – this has the cold’
More floral, another level of aromatic attractiveness. Cool, broad, almost juicy yellow fruit – I really enjoy the slightly more fluid style to the delivery of flavour here. There’s a fine burst of finishing salinity too – just an ultra-delicious wine.
Back to domaine wines – a bit more than a hectare of vines. A mix of tank and barrel – 60% tank. Protected by aspersion here.
Direct, floral, beautifully precise – that’s super! Hmm, so melting and silky, just a gorgeous wine here finishing more linear and always completely delicious – that’s a great 2022!
2022 Chablis 1er Butteaux
Nearly 3 hectares extra. This is the first part of Butteaux as you leave Chablis next to Forets… Younger vines planted by father-in-law after some court-noué and it seems to be returning – 12-15 hl/ha in 2022. All barrel elevage again.
A more subtle nose – quite direct though. Really a panoramic width of flavour here – silken, a little more apparent concentration/generosity – large-scale wine. Simply delicious but today I’d take the more linear l’Homme Mort.
2022 Chablis Bougros
Back to a contract, one barrel and one demi-muid for elevage. Candle protection used here, just above the section that uses the aspersion.
Hmm, that’s not powerful but it is beautifully inviting. Larger scale – of course! A wine of generous concentration but always juicily melting with flavour at the edges. Clearly the most complex and changing, long finish. Simply excellent grand cru.