Tasted in Chablis with Stéphane Barras, 08 April 2022.
Domaine Laroche
L’Obédiencerie
22 rue Louis Bro
89800 Chablis
Tel: +33 3 86 42 89 00
www.larochewines.com
More reports with Domaine Laroche
Stéphane on 2020:
“We were harvesting 25-August to 08-September but with one weekend off around the 31st! There was such a big heterogeneity that we decided to take it slowly but surely – despite the early start. We’ve got our own laboratory and we find that essential for picking at the best times. We also work in the ‘Champagne style’ in that we never keep the end of the press for our wines except as salt and pepper for some larger assemblies. It was certainly a hot one; for our machine harvests we were starting at 4am and by 10am we were already done for the day – it was simply too warm to continue.”
The wines…
As almost every year, a fine range and with some cuvées that are worth a special search…
The last 2019 wine to be bottled will be done this week. Practically all the corks here are NDTech – i.e. an Amorim product that is individually tested to guarantee them TCA free:
2021! Domaine, Chablis St.Martin
Usually an assembly of about 42 hectares from 60 hectares, with separate elevage – many terroirs – using old foudres 15% for the elevage. The aim is to add a little density. Never the same parcels used, always selected blind. 2020 is gone and this is already coming onto the market.
Open, welcoming freshness. So easy to drink, mineral, clearly not a wine of concentration but absolutely a vin de soif – to quench your thirst – you WILL drink this too quickly! It finishes very well too…
5th vintage, selected from 6.5 ha below Les Lys. The vines are over 75 years old. Elevage in foudre then finished in stainless steel with all the lees. Vieille Voye reflects the nearby Roman Road.
More saline and more perfumed. Crystalline, fine energy, great texture – fluid flavour. Complete, great, villages Chablis. Chalky finishing…
2020 Domaine, Chablis 1er Les Vaudevey
Not as open but there’s still some aromatic impact and mineral clarity here. Open, really energetic, perhaps some gas pushing the energy more. Beautiful pure citrus finishing – completely excellent wine with a GREAT finish!
2020 Domaine, Chablis 1er Beauroy
Also not fully open but silken and with a little extra ripeness of fruit. More mouth-filling, less focus today but still with lots of energy and fine flavour complexity – still tension. Some rounding of the flavour by the barrels – more visible in the finish than the last wine – but this will fade if you wait 18-24 months.
2020 Chablis 1er Côte de Lechet
Only 0.20 ha at the domaine – 10k plants per hectare – that’s HD for here.
This nose is broader and more energetic. More incisive and much more mineral. The first flavours need to find their place – a little cellar patience – but the middle and finishing flavours are already broad exciting and delicious. Carafe will help if you want to drink now.
2020 Chablis 1er Vaillons Vieilles Vignes
80% Roncières and some Chatains
Really an exciting width of pure citrus freshness – a great nose. It’s all wood elevage (foudres and barrels) but you really wouldn’t notice. Clarity of mineral flavour suffused with clean citrus. I love the texture too. Finishing with an extra burst and a touch of salinity. That’s a beauty – nice finishing bitters too!
2020 Chablis 1er Butteaux
Third vintage – domaine – 17-year-old vines, the young vines previously in generic 1er cru or Champs Martin, half a hectare.
Open, aromatic – lots of citrus – some citrus skin too, all cushioned with a little barrel. Easy over the palate – possibly the oak, possibly the younger vines – but the texture is good and the mounting intensity is very nice. The finish is really excellent. Carafe or keep 2-3 years in the cellar to find the tension – it has excellent potential.
2020 Domaine, Chablis 1er Montmains
All from Montmains – the higher part – 45-year-old vines.
Hmm – vibrant, mineral, a creamy cushion but very exciting. Intense, cool fruit, mineral, becoming almost juicy. A small, more modest, finishing interval then broadening out over the palate. Subtle but engrossing. Excellent Montmains.
2020 Chablis 1er Mont de Milieu
This from contracts – the first of this series
There’s a little green herb in the complexity of this. Yes, definitely plenty of pyrazine in the flavours. Lip-smacking, nicely shaped wine. For the green-insensitive that’s still a very good one.
2020 Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnerre
Also contracts – this and the last DIAM-sealed – though the domaine politic remains with cork.
The nose has a width of citrus freshness. Mouth-filling, good energy. Not the same clarity as many of the previous wines. The finish is long, accented with some barrel. Still, it’s very good.
2020 Domaine, Chablis 1er Fourchaume Vieilles Vignes
Back to a domaine wine. Mainly Homme Mort but also Cote de Fontenay – the domaine takes their massale selections from here too.
Not the widest but here’s a fine and pure nose – the more golden-style fruit of Fourchaume. Lovely rolling minerality here, the golden fruit style makes this less directly incisive, but this is moreishly delicious. The finish is mouth-watering and persistent – small reprises keeping it going. Excellent Fourchaume.
A barrel selection to provide enough juice for 2k bottles – since 2018.
A finer, seemingly with more purity, width of beautiful, perfumed, aroma. More incisive, fluid, mobile wine – always suffused with sufficient citrus to keep the interest. The subtlest accent of barrel, and a finish that haunts rather than of power. Great wine.
2020 Domaine, Chablis Les Bouguerots
Bottled December. All demi-muids – 600 litres. High density planting – for here – 10k
A little more muscle to these yellow-citrus aromas. A personality with more volume, below a fine base in mineral, and some barrel, notes. This needs to gather a bit more character in bottle but all the parts are in place. The finish is really the most interesting part today – keep patient with this one.
2020 Domaine, Chablis Les Blanchots
7 different parcels – 4.5 hectares.
Broad – quite an exciting little reduction here. Really super in the mouth, sinuous, mobile, always interesting wine. Never overly generous – just beautifully balanced. A subtle oak is still visible in the finish – this will be more than excellent!
Always the best tasting parcels – blind. The volume of this varies year by year – all based on tasting each barrel – but it’s rarely as much as 25% of their Blanchots that makes it into this cuvée. But there always seems to be some particular parcels that get the nod – but not always the oldest vines – they really like a planting that they did in 2013 too!
Wide and fresh, very subtly herbed. There is extra here – a suggestion of more salinity – an extra twist of citrus complexity too. The flavour that widens – more mouth-watering but never excessively. A finish that’s more open and persistent than the previous wine too. A wine of composure and character – bravo!
2020 Chablis Cuvée 0
The vin ‘nature’ – Bottled March 2020. From a single parcel not 5m from grand cru – all done by hand and with zero additives. A cement tank for the elevage. There’s no 2021 of this.
Showing a little extra colour. A big and forward nose – a little apple, the impression of bubbles. Hmm, that’s got a nicely incisive character – a cremant without bubbles – but a flavour that vibrates over the palate all the way into the finish. Super-tasty. You may – or may not – guess Chablis, but I’m sure you will be taking a second glass. Yum!