Tasted in Fontenay with Thierry Mothe, 16 April, 2014.
Domaine du Colombier
42 Grande rue
89800 FONTENAY-PRES-CHABLIS
Tel. +33 (0)3 86 42 15 04
+33 (0)3 86 42 15 04
www.chabliscolombier.com
The Domaine du Colombier has been a family domaine since 1887. In 1957 Guy Mothe came to the helm, today his three sons, Jean-Louis, Thierry and Vincent work the 54 hectares of vines. The Domaine started to sell in bottle in the mid-1980’s. Today, it produces 250k bottles of which ~85% are exported.
Everything is picked by machine here, which allows them to pick 54 hectares in 8-10 days, depending on the harvest conditions – they managed the 2013 harvest n only 7 days as they needed to go faster. Fermentations are cool – around 17-18°C, whilst malolactic fermentation is allowed to reach 19°C. Only the domaine’s Grand Cru gets some oak elevage – 20% in up to 5 year-old barrels. One barrel of Chablis Vieilles-Vignes also gets this treatment.
2013 Petit Chablis
This was bottled at the start of March.
The nose is fresh and sweetly pretty. This is quite full flavoured and tasty – but seems to me more like Chardonnay than Petit Chablis(?)
2012 Chablis
Pretty, freshly cut herbs. More width, intensity and in-particular, density. A super peak of flavour in the mid-palate and into the finish. Very good.
2012 Chablis Vieilles-Vignes
Just the one barrel of wine made from the grapes of these 45 year-old vines sees oak elevage – but that works out to be 10% of the cuvée.
The nose is fresh but rather more shy – just faintly sweet. Rounder, with just a little more flesh. The concentration exerts itself in the mid-palate – very tasty – it’s lovely in the finish too. Yum!
This nose has a more ripe and concentrated yellow-skinned fruit aromatic – then a slowly evolving and very pretty floral element. Fresh, hardly any fat, just a lovely mouth-watering flavour. A super growth of flavour that slowly fades in the finish. Not super-concentrated but super-enjoyable.
2012 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
Here is a denser, more powerful nose that slowly adds higher tones too to round it out. Fuller, with more density. this is the more mineral – it’s impressive, but I’ve a preference for the über-pretty Vaucopins.
2011 Chablis Bougros
The pyrazine/asparagus vegetal nose is my first impression but slowly there is also honey and almonds in the glass – it’s starting to become much more appealing. Lithe and well-balanced. There’s extra concentration and density here – much more length too. I don’t find the vivacity of the domaine’s 12s though.