Chablis. Domaine Laroche

Located in the heart of the village Domaine Laroche is deeply rooted in the region’s history. Its headquarters is located in „Obédiencerie”, an old church where wine has been produced for over 1000 years.

Winery was established in Chablis in 1850 by one of its workers – Jean Victor Laroche. After five generations in the family Domaine Laroche has become one of the biggest producers in Chablis. What sets Laroche apart from other producers is their monopole – they are exclusive owners of particular parcels and only they can source grapes from it. Similarly to Albert Bichot “Moutounne” – more on the matter in our next post.

Chablis is a rather scattered region, however Domaine Laroche holds around 90 hectares of vineyards, including 30 hectares of Premier Crus and 6 hectares Grand Crus with parcels in: Les Blanchots, Les Bougros and Les Clos. Aside from their own vineyards, the winery has a long established purchase partnership with around 40 small producers. For example Laroche Chablis „Les Chanoines” is produced from the grapes bought from negociants, and wines labelled as Domaine Laroche are made exclusively from their own grapes. 70% of production goes into Chablis village, including frontrunning Saint Martin. Winery portfolio also includes one Petit Chablis. In 2014 Domaine Laroche crafted Chablis coming from a single parcel on village level (Vieille Voye). This is very uncommon considering most of the village appellation wines from Burgundy are a mixture of grapes coming from different locations.

Currently Giles Magnin runs the winery with Grégory Viennois as winemaster, also overlooking wine production for the entire company. Vineyards are cultivated ecologically without the use of chemical pesticides or herbicides. Production methods are based around the least amount of interventionism, fermentation occurs with natural yeast. As with many other wineries in the region Laroche is hard at work to secure ecological certificate.

At the beginning of the XXI century Domaine Laroche as the first winery in Burgundy decided to use screw caps for all of their wines. The goal was to maximize the freshness and minimize the wines being spoiled by a faulty cork. After some time this decision has been reversed and Laroche is using cork once again.

Psst: After the tour and tasting make sure to reserve a table at the neighbouring restaurant Les Trois Bourgeons for lunch or dinner.

Tasting: Tasting should be reserved by phone or online. I recommend having a full experience – visiting Obédiencerie and tasting for 17 euro per person. The tour includes interesting animation about Chablis and wine history. If you decide to buy more it is possible to negotiate tour price deduction from the final price. 

Worth trying: all the wines we have tasted were wonderful. My favourite was Chablis Premier Cru ‘Côte de Léchet’ and most prestigious wine produced by Domaine Laroche Chablis Grand Cru Les Blanchots ‘La Réserve de L’Obédience’. Honourable mention goes to basic Chablis which are crafted from grapes coming from a single parcel – this is rather seldom for wines below Premier Cru level.