2015  

Located just southwest of the commune of Chablis, Irancy boasts an unusual topography: it lies in the hollow of a valley whose slopes (covered primarily with vines and cherry trees) protect it from harsh weather of its northern climes. Its geographical location, on the right bank of the Yonne River, also provides good moisture from morning mists. Fortuitously the region does claim adequate sunshine for full ripening. Irancy is a natural ampitheater and a unique winegrowing environment.

1985  Rouge

2019  

2020  Bourgogne Aligote Les Creusottes

Bourgogne Aligote Les Creusottes Complex nose of lemon blossom, toasted bread and crisp orchard fruit. Persistent minerality and refreshing acidity are present even through this medium-bodied expression of Aligote. Very nice length on the finish.

2011  

2020  Cotes d'Auxerre Blanc

Cotes d'Auxerre Blanc ---- "Lavallée's 2020 Bourgogne Côtes d'Auxerre Blanc is very promising, offering up notes of citrus, Anjou pear, green apple and white flowers. Medium-bodied, elegantly fleshy and concentrated, it's fine-boned but intensely flavored. It's produced from deep but stony soils and, in total, amounts to a mere four barrels." - 88-90pts William Kelley, Wine Advocate ---- One of my most exciting discoveries in Chablis and the Auxerrois was fledgling Domaine Clément Lavallée. Clement's father is the proprietor of a substantial, modern and mechanized domaine in Saint-Bris, but Clément's aspirations were more artisanal. He started his own label in 2019, with just 3.5 hectares supplemented by purchased fruit - a surface that's grown to 5.5 hectares today. Eschewing herbicides, he cultivates the soils with lightweight tractors and keeps chemical treatments to the minimum. Working with a variety of sites and cépages, harvest lasts a full month. In the cellar, whites see a long pressing, with Clément selling in bulk any juice that doesn't please him, and reds see long macerations with a percentage of whole bunches. Élevage takes place in used wood on the lees, and the wines are never pumped. What I tasted on this first visit indicates that Lavallée hit the ground running with his very first vintage. Textural but incisive, pure and penetrating, I was immensely impressed by these young wines - from pungently mineral Chablis, to perfumed and intense reds, to Saint-Bris that's more Auxerrois than it is Sauvignon, everything here comes warmly recommended, and I encourage importers to beat a path to this new domaine's door.

2019  Bourgogne Blanc

2015  

2019  

2019  Hautes Cotes de Nuits

"An exuberantly fresh nose offers up cool notes of essence of various red berries with snippets of spice and earth. The delicious and equally vibrant flavors are not quite as concentrated but they're finer with lovely detail and minerality on the ever-so-mildly austere finale. This is really quite pretty and worth a look as an all-around house red candidate." - Outstanding Top Value, Burghound