Wine and Spirits Annual Buying Guide 1999
Imported Wineries of the Year
In the past year, W&S panels reviewed 2773 newly released imported wines. The best performers in our tastings are featured here, as International Wineries of the Year. In certain regions, the greatest producers only make one or two bottlings, and so are not eligible for the list – we require that a winery have at least three wines recommended before we will consider the brand as a Winery of the Year. Great wineries that produce fewer bottlings are often featured in our 100 Best Wines of the Year section.
Since vintages vary considerably in different regions of the world, and since our tastings do not cover every region every year, our international list of brands is more selective than comprehensive. The wineries range from the largest producers in Australia and Tuscany to exclusive domaines in Burgundy and on Germany's Rhine. Rather than serve as a complete guide to the best wineries in the world, the Winery of the Year list recognizes producers who are consistently making great wines in their particular regions. This year, we've included a Value Brand of the Year, and a Sparkling Brand of the Year.
After we selected the wineries, we gathered all their current releases – some too new to have been tasted by our panels – so that our East Coast Critic, W&S Editor Joshua Greene, could taste and comment on their complete range of wines. Each of his profiles also includes a list of wines recommended during the last year, noting the score, price, and the issue in which it appeared.
DOMAINE LAROCHE
Michel Laroche, finesse and consistency in Chablis
Jean-Victor Laroche, a vineyard worker, purchased a small plot of vines in 1850, the first investment that eventually grew into the family's domaine of 247 acres in Chablis. Most of that growth came three generations later in the 1960s, when Henri Laroche and his son Michel were able to purchase vineyards at favorable prices due to the struggling fortunes of Chablis after World War II. Today, the domaine's cellars are based in a ninth century monastery, l'Obédiencerie, where a small crypt contains the relics of Saint Martin, the patron saint of Chablis.
During his thirty-year tenure, Michel Laroche has worked to produce pure, fresh Chablis with an emphasis on organic viticulture and the natural ecology of the vineyard. And to insure the typicity of the domaine's Chablis, Laroche replants with material propagated from old vines in his own vineyards. In the winery, the village Chablis is fermented in stainless steel, while the grands crus and some of the premiers crus are fermented in oak.
From the clean and fresh village-level Chablis Saint Martin to the most backward grands crus, the Laroche wines show restraint and fine concentration of fruit. Les Blanchots and Les Clos are the two most powerful wines. In '96, Les Clos is massive and silent, Les Blanchots more delicately layered with mineral, dry honey and lemon-lime fruit packed in. Laroche's most limited bottling is a barrel selection from the best of Les Blanchots, which the firm labels Réserve de l'Obédiencerie. In '96, it's the most potently flavored of all, with a lime zest character and caramelized oak overlaying the fruit. Chablis once defined elegant and finely structured white wine. Laroche's wines offer a quiet, more subtle style of chardonnay, a refreshing alternative to the New World, or the Côte d'Or.