Producer Insight: Domaine Heitz-Lochardet

On my March trip to Burgundy I had the pleasure to taste some wines from Domaine Heitz-Lochardet – both from the 2013 vintage and the 2014 vintage – and to meet Armand Heitz the man behind the wines a couple of times.

Photo: Armand Heitz of Domaine Heitz-Locharded

I was very impressed by the wines – both the white and the reds, and Armand Heitz is in my view a great new talent – one of the brightets new stars on the Burgundy heaven.

So lets take a closer look at Domaine Heitz-Lochardet.

Domaine Heitz-Lochardet

The history of Domaine Heitz-Lochardet began in 1857 with the Nie-Vantey family owners of many vineyards from Santenay to Clos de Vougeot.

After the phylloxera epidemic, many of the vineyards were sold, but some of the best Cote de Beaune vineyards were kept in the family by Georges Lochardet. Georges Lochardet was a wine merchant, and the estate was around 20 ha when he passed away – and he left half of the vineyards to his son Armand Lochardet.

Armand Lochardet had three children – Bernard, Catherine and Brigitte – and the vineyards were divided between them. In 1983 Brigitte married Christian Heitz, and a few years later the Heitz-Lochardet estate was founded. Brigitte and Christian have a son Armand Heitz – the young man who is now in charge of the estate.

All the wines were however sold to Maison Joseph Drouhin, and they also took care of the viticulture. At some point Brigitte decided to change to organic viticulture.

So the foundation was there when Armand Heitz finished his studies and became oenologist in 2011. He was then given the first plots to explore his wine making skills – the two first wines made in 2012 were a Bourgogne Chardonnay and a Bourgogne Pinot Noir.

In 2013 Armand got more serious plots to work with, and he produced 5 wines in 2013:

• Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru (0.09 ha)
• Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru la Maltroye (0.70 ha)
• Pommard Premier Cru Monopole Clos des Poutures (0.66 ha)
• Bourgogne Chardonnay (0.35 ha)
• Bourgogne Pinot Noir

In 2014 the vineyard portfolio was expanded further with the following appellations:

• Meursault Premier Cru Les Perrières (0.70 ha)
• Pommard Premier Cru Les Rugiens (0.43 ha)
• Meursault

Lastly in 2015 the vineyard portfolio was expanded even further to in total 5 ha with two new reds:

• Pommard Premier Cru Les Pezerolles (0.60 ha)
• Volnay Premier Cru Les Taillepieds (0,37 ha)

The ambition is to continue the expansion adding more interesting terroirs.

The plots and vineyards

I normally make vineyard maps myself, and if I’m lucky I will get the cadastre numbers for the plots. Not in this case – Armand Heitz have made some beautiful maps – that shows the exact location of the plots.

The first map show the location of the plots of Chevalier-Montrachet, in total 0.09 ha – located just south of the Domaine Leflaive main section on Chevalier.

The next map show the plots on Meursault Les Perrieres. The Heitz-Lochardet plots are located in the lower part of Meursault Perrieres.

On the map below we see the holdings in Pommard.

The wines from Domaine Heitz-Lochardet

I have tasted 6 different wines from Domaine Heitz-Lochardet, and all were lovely and expressive.

The reds are very juicy in 2014 and I was very impressed by especially the Pommard Rugiens .. pure, vibrant with a lovely display of terroir … nice energy in the midplatate fruit. Love the expressive style … 100% whole cluster … a gorgeous wine.

The whites are also very fine in 2014, and showing fine energy and vibrancy. They are pure and focused – with a delicate balance between weight and refinement. The oak is well integrated but present in the wines, but very balanced.

I must say I like the style of both the reds and the whites … and I was very impressed by especially the reds in 2014. The whites were also magnificent in 2014 .. but that is to be expected as the quality of the whites in 2014 is outstandingly good.

It will be very interesting to follow Domaine Heitz-Lochardet in the years to come ..