Pierrick Laroche Chablis Grand Cru Bougros 2023

Pierrick Laroche's father established Domaine des Hâtes in the 1970s in Maligny, a village in the north-west sector of the Chablis appellation. Pierrick took over the estate and produced his first vintage under his own name in 2010, working an estate that has now grown to about 25 hectares. The Maligny base sits on the Kimmeridgian limestone-and-marl soils that define Chablis — the same geological formation as the chalk of southern England, fossil-rich and giving Chablis its distinctive saline-mineral signature.

From the 2016 vintage Pierrick added a small négoce operation, buying must from friends farming predominantly on the left bank of the Serein River (the western, traditionally cooler side of Chablis). The négoce range now includes Premier Crus Beauroy, Beauregard and Vau de Vey, plus Grand Cru Bougros — a step up from the standard estate-village wines into the upper Chablis hierarchy. In 2019 Pierrick inherited a further 8 acres in southern Chablis around Courgis: Petit Chablis, 5.5 acres of village-level Chablis, and just over half an acre of Premier Cru Les Butteaux. The range now spans Petit Chablis through Grand Cru — a vertical that few small Chablis growers can offer at this scale.

Exceptional with whole grilled turbot, butter-poached lobster, Burgundy-style snails, veal in cream sauce or a plate of fine oysters.