Lovely pale primrose with some light green tints. Tight and nervous, yellow plums, vey backward. Ripe yet tense. First picked. Some pear notes as well. Excellent thread of acidity. This really needs time but will be quite exceptional.
Drink 2017-2022

Named after his father, Le Domaine d’Henri is Michel Laroche’s legacy to his children. This wine presents an excellent opportunity to sample the “once in a generation” 2014 vintage – which is renowned for its uniformly high quality across the region. With outstanding freshness, crisp citrus fruits, and Chablis’s trademark oyster-shell aromas, this is a wonderful wine which pairs beautifully with shellfish and lighter white meat dishes.
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This comes from vines that run from top to bottom of Chapelots. Palish in colour with broad shoulders, this is not too rich and sunny but is magnificently complete, with excellent balancing acidity. It’s a marvel in the mouth with waves of different fruits, especially plums. Exceptional quality.

This is an outstanding range of wines from Guillaume, the best we have seen here. The season got off to a difficult start with a touch of frost followed by a Whitsun heatwave, which restricted the flowering. After a normal June, a very wet July encumbered work in the vineyards, then the weather cheered up at the end of the season. The Michels harvested from 17th September through to 1st October because of different ripeness levels, stopping in the middle. Clearly this attention to detail paid off in the end. The wines are hand-picked and fermented in stainless steel using natural yeasts.

Pale in colour with a fine, light green tint, this is massively concentrated and flinty. Although backward, you can see what will happen when it is eventually ready. The most complete wine of all in the mouth, with striking minerals wreathed in concentrated fruit, this is ripe but not over-ripe.

The vineyards near to Chablis itself were affected by the heat at Whitsun, which damaged the flowering, so the quantity of wine is no better than last year. Outlying communes, however, were less impacted. Benoît began the harvest early, on 11th September. He compares 2014 to 1996, 2007 (only richer) and 2010 (only more mineral). A recent development here is for the wines to be fermented using their own indigenous yeasts.

Part of the success of this cuveé is because William Fèvre has parcels on both sides of the Vaudésir amphitheatre, making a tightly controlled wine which, as it matures will display both mineral elegance and power. For now, there are tightly wound white fruits, a herbal intensity and the promise of a great deal more to come.

The grapes were picked by hand between 15th and 22nd September in good weather conditions. The Premiers Crus will be bottled in December or January, the Grands Crus a little later. The fresh style of the wines is dictated by the summer temperatures, both July and August being cooler than average. The different terroirs are beautifully delineated this year and the range offers some fascinating contrasting pairings: Vaillons/Mont de Milieu; Montée de Tonnerre/Vauloren and Les Preuses/ Côte Bouguerots for example.

The hallmark of this wine is a gracious elegance, a seamless texture and a feeling of serenity. White fruit and minerality combine effortlessly on a scale which is clearly Grand Cru. It offers more harmony but less electricity than Côte Bouguerots for example.

The grapes were picked by hand between 15th and 22nd September in good weather conditions. The Premiers Crus will be bottled in December or January, the Grands Crus a little later. The fresh style of the wines is dictated by the summer temperatures, both July and August being cooler than average. The different terroirs are beautifully delineated this year and the range offers some fascinating contrasting pairings: Vaillons/Mont de Milieu; Montée de Tonnerre/Vauloren and Les Preuses/ Côte Bouguerots for example.

Coming from the north-facing flank of the vineyard, this is faint yellow, offering a really powerful nose, with excellent underlying fruit and a few flowers. There is huge weight behind it, freshened up by crunchy fruit; this is a wine with great potential.

This is an outstanding range of wines from Guillaume, the best we have seen here. The season got off to a difficult start with a touch of frost followed by a Whitsun heatwave, which restricted the flowering. After a normal June, a very wet July encumbered work in the vineyards, then the weather cheered up at the end of the season. The Michels harvested from 17th September through to 1st October because of different ripeness levels, stopping in the middle. Clearly this attention to detail paid off in the end. The wines are hand-picked and fermented in stainless steel using natural yeasts.

A combination of all the above Grands Crus, only more so: Les Clos manages to be the most powerful wine, with the greatest concentration of fruit, yet retaining a driving elegance throughout. Minerals abound, and the finish shows extraordinary persistence.

The grapes were picked by hand between 15th and 22nd September in good weather conditions. The Premiers Crus will be bottled in December or January, the Grands Crus a little later. The fresh style of the wines is dictated by the summer temperatures, both July and August being cooler than average. The different terroirs are beautifully delineated this year and the range offers some fascinating contrasting pairings: Vaillons/Mont de Milieu; Montée de Tonnerre/Vauloren and Les Preuses/ Côte Bouguerots for example.

The colour is fine and pale with a faint green tint. The nose is really special, very discreet but also extremely precise, with little floral and herbal details to tease out, some verbena and fresh fruit. It is ripe but has retained all the necessary acidity. They may be new kids on the block but this has all the hallmarks of really top Chablis. Huge energy here – this is a great vintage really well made.

The third vintage at Domaine d’Henri is the best to date, and so they make their debut in our en primeur brochure. The grapes were hand picked between the 17th and 25th September, a long enough window to allow each plot to reach the desired degree of ripeness, and the wines have seen about 25 percent barrel-ageing. They will not be bottled until the spring.

A glorious, pale, bright appearance, with dense white fruit – not overtly juicy but with a great deal in reserve. There’s enormous weight behind this, with some fresh pear notes, and cashmere-like texture alongside the austerity of youth.

The third vintage at Domaine d’Henri is the best to date, and so they make their debut in our en primeur brochure. The grapes were hand picked between the 17th and 25th September, a long enough window to allow each plot to reach the desired degree of ripeness, and the wines have seen about 25 percent barrel-ageing. They will not be bottled until the spring.

Fine distinguished pale colour, while the nose is very backward, no problem with that. Very pure, very intense, the palate is sublime, white fruit, steely structure, a wealth of flesh firmly attached to the bones, a wine of immense potential and longevity.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director

Old vines from Les Cartes vineyard give the flesh, while Pargues and Chatelots offer dynamic tension with a great core of energy. Pale primrose in colour, with a truly beautiful nose, classical yet full of fruit, this is crystalline, pure, delicious Chablis, with a lovely dancing finish.

Though the viticulture predates the return of his vineyards, Samuel got into his own vines just before the harvest and has thus been able to vinify a larger range than before. So when we visited he was much happier all round, especially with an excellent 2014 harvest in his cellar: healthy grapes and correct yields between 40hl/ha for Grand Cru and 55hl/ha for Chablis.

This wine offers a fascinating contrast to Montée de Tonnerre. It is very pure, intense, with greener fruit, a fine-boned intensity, and very tightly knit. Oyster shells are lurking in the background, along with a slightly monastic austerity. It will blossom with maturity.

The grapes were picked by hand between 15th and 22nd September in good weather conditions. The Premiers Crus will be bottled in December or January, the Grands Crus a little later. The fresh style of the wines is dictated by the summer temperatures, both July and August being cooler than average. The different terroirs are beautifully delineated this year and the range offers some fascinating contrasting pairings: Vaillons/Mont de Milieu; Montée de Tonnerre/Vauloren and Les Preuses/ Côte Bouguerots for example.

The Grand Cru Bougros would have an outstanding reputation if all the vineyards were on the incredibly steep Côte Bouguerots. The wine has a character all of its own: electric, linear and extraordinarily intense. The flavours are based around white fruit, the minerals more stony than marine in style, and the persistence makes clear that this is a great wine for the long term.

The grapes were picked by hand between 15th and 22nd September in good weather conditions. The Premiers Crus will be bottled in December or January, the Grands Crus a little later. The fresh style of the wines is dictated by the summer temperatures, both July and August being cooler than average. The different terroirs are beautifully delineated this year and the range offers some fascinating contrasting pairings: Vaillons/Mont de Milieu; Montée de Tonnerre/Vauloren and Les Preuses/ Côte Bouguerots for example.