Tasted in Odenas with Boris Gruy, 09 February 2022.
Château de La Chaize
69460 Odenas
Tel: +33 04 74 03 41 05
www.chateaudelachaize.com
More reports with Château de La Chaize
Boris on 2021:
“The volume here was about 32 hl/ha – we really did a lot of triage. We will be classified organic in 2022 and in this vintage we had problems with oïdium and black rot and there’s not much for the latter that you can use that’s organic – it’s just the blend of copper and zinc that helps. But there’s lots of quality after the triage – we have nice wine – proper gamay fruit. The wines are not super-concentrated but I think they have a nice balance.”
Boris on 2020:
“I’m really happy with the 2020s. Our first grapes were cut 24 August – in Côte de Brouilly – normally we start in Fleurie. Actually a lot of parcels were ready at the same time – only some of our vines at 480 meters needed more patience. We have plenty of concentration – we saw from 13-15° but our average is closer to 14°. It’s another year with a small volume – 32 hl/ha again but it was the dryness that mainly impacted the amount of juice.”
The wines…
With each passing vintage I see more clarity and more elan to the wines from here – 2021 will, of course, be more challenging but the domaine can bask in the quality of their 2020s for while longer…
All Trescasses NDtech for the higher wines, it will be DIAM for the ‘entry wines:’
2020 Fleurie Chapelle des Bois
Worked by horse now. This bottled in December. Here is another ‘project’ remaking the walls and ‘Glorieuse’ of their parcel.
Not too deep a colour. ‘We didn’t have much hydric stress here’ That’s got a lovely floral perfume. Supple, concentrated but with a fine mouth-watering and quite mineral finishing, modest dryness from the tannin and a little finishing sucrosity. Airy, fine delicious wine. Certainly very good.
Making a clockwise tour of the domaine’s Brouilly:
2020 Brouilly Moulin Favre
To be bottled in the coming weeks. High vines, north-east-facing – deep granitic soil, very sandy.
Much darker colour – direct, a little saline in style. Supple, very concentrated, that’s got a lovely texture – slowly becoming more of a velour texture as some fine tannic grain starts to show – Nicely acidulated in the finishing flavour.
The lieu-dit. Bottled in January
Les colour. There’s a vibrant depth to this nose. Again supple – there’s more silk to this concentrated wine. More juicy and involving – absolutely delicious wine. This is a great wine – it will please everyone…
2020 Brouilly Vers les Pins
40-50-year-old vines – they have kept the goblet-pruned vines here.
Finer, super freshness – less forward – slowly with ripe dark fruit – but of clarity too. This wine is direct, also beautifully mouth-watering, the grain of tannin slightly more visible but also with a beautifully mouth-watering energy and acidulated finishing like the last. Simply excellent…
2020 Brouilly Combiaty
A larger nose – more volume of energetic dark fruit. Wide, cool-fruited. More structural in style but very open, complex, even a little spicy. Finishing more composed and mineral. That’s really excellent – I’d probably wait a couple of years before opening these but there’s no overt austerity.
The vines behind the château – the oldest vines of the domaine here but together with low yields and too much black rot this parcel of 120-year-old vines is to be replanted.
A little narrower nose but becoming purer with air. Hmm – that’s beautiful in the mouth – that special quality of fluidity despite concentration. A modest finishing vibration of energy too – part mineral, part dark fruit. Top!
The high part is blue-stone and the low part granite – there’s 9 hectares here
That’s a super concentration of aroma yet still with some freshness. Airy but with a certain personality and with a driving style that’s mouth-watering, the flavours picking-up speed as they tumble over the palate. That’s completely delicious and great wine for sure!