2018 Chablis 1er Cru L'Homme Mort Vieilles Vignes, Le Domaine d'Henri

“Ghosts, Chalk & Grace”

This is Chablis with history in its bones and calm confidence in the glass. The 2018 L’Homme Mort Vieilles Vignes opens with lemon peel, green apple and white peach, threaded with oyster shell, chalk dust and a cool whisper of flint. There is a quiet depth from the old vines here, over 50 years of age, giving the wine more presence and texture than your average Premier Cru, while still holding onto that unmistakable Chablis cut.

On the palate, it is layered and beautifully composed. Citrus and orchard fruit glide over a core of saline minerality and wet stone, with a gentle roundness from bottle age softening the edges without dimming the freshness. The 2018 vintage brings a little extra generosity, but this remains firmly rooted in precision and tension. The finish is long, stony and quietly haunting, lingering on chalk, lemon oil and a savoury, shell-like note that keeps pulling you back.

This special cellar release adds another dimension altogether. With time in bottle and direct provenance from the château, it arrives not just as a fine Chablis, but as a rare opportunity to taste the wine in exactly the way the domaine intended, matured slowly, gracefully and with perfect care.

For when you want white Burgundy with detail, depth and a story to tell.
Pairs with oysters, turbot, roast chicken with tarragon or simply a table that knows what it is drinking.
If this wine were a place, it would be an ancient stone cellar, cool, quiet and full of secrets.

Le Domaine d’Henri was created by Michel Laroche in 2010 after selling his stake in Domaine Laroche, while retaining the family’s historic vineyards in Chablis. Named in honour of his father, Henri, the estate is now run with Michel’s children, Margaux and Romain, and focuses on old-vine, site-expressive wines of purity and pedigree. L’Homme Mort, in the Fourchaume sector, takes its name from the discovery of an ancient cemetery nearby containing Merovingian skeletons. It is one of the domaine’s most distinctive sites, producing Chablis of both mineral precision and old-vine gravitas.