Le Domaine D'Henri Chablis Fourchaume Premier Cru 2014
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Robert
Parker
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Vinified in stainless steel tanks (89%) to preserve the minerality and freshness, and in oak barrels (11%) of 228-litres to add more complex notes, this wine will continue to improve for the next 15 years or so.
Serve at 55-57°F, opening 15 minutes before serving to allow the aromas to develop. Perfect with a seafood platter, langoustines or sole.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Chablis 1Er Cru Fourchaume has a lovely clean and fresh, mineral-driven bouquet that complements the Granny Smith apple and kiwi fruit aromas. The palate is bounding with so much energy, a great line of acidity here, vibrant citrus fruit with superb mineralité on the focused finish. This is a great Fourchaume that is going to give a lot of pleasure. Tasted blind, I ranked this equal to the Fourchaumes Vieilles Vignes
Other Vintages
2015-
Robert
Parker
Named after winemaker Michel Laroche's father, the Domaine d'Henri winery started in 2012 with 8 hectares, over 4.5 hectares in the Premier Cru Fourchaume, planted by Michel Laroche and his father and 3.5 hectares of vines in the village of Maligny where Jean-Victor Laroche created the estate. The family is aiming to slightly expand the vineyard to reach 22 hectares in 2019 with Chablis and Petit Chablis.
Le Domaine d’Henri is a small estate that pays attention to all the details. The philosophy in the vineyard consists in keeping intervention at the minimum, and letting nature express itself. The winery does its best to produce the most authentic, typical Chablis, marked by its mineral character.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
The source of the most racy, light and tactile, yet uniquely complex Chardonnay, Chablis, while considered part of Burgundy, actually reaches far past the most northern stretch of the Côte d’Or proper. Its vineyards cover hillsides surrounding the small village of Chablis about 100 miles north of Dijon, making it actually closer to Champagne than to Burgundy. Champagne and Chablis have a unique soil type in common called Kimmeridgian, which isn’t found anywhere else in the world except southern England. A 180 million year-old geologic formation of decomposed clay and limestone, containing tiny fossilized oyster shells, spans from the Dorset village of Kimmeridge in southern England all the way down through Champagne, and to the soils of Chablis. This soil type produces wines full of structure, austerity, minerality, salinity and finesse.
Chablis Grands Crus vineyards are all located at ideal elevations and exposition on the acclaimed Kimmeridgian soil, an ancient clay-limestone soil that lends intensity and finesse to its wines. The vineyards outside of Grands Crus are Premiers Crus, and outlying from those is Petit Chablis. Chablis Grand Cru, as well as most Premier Cru Chablis, can age for many years.