2020 Domaine Heitz-Lochardet Meursault les Gruyaches

Domaine Heitz-Lochardet is in the iconic part of Burgundy, in Chassagne-Montrachet. The family with the same name has owned top vineyards for quite some time, and Armand Heitz made his first wine in 2013. The history of Domaine Heitz-Lochardet dates to 1857. Over the years, Georges Lochardet's family, who was a wine merchant, acquired important vineyards totaling 20 hectares, and when he died, he left 50% of it to his son Armand.
Armand had 3 children, and in 1983 his daughter Brigitte married Christian Heitz, and Domaine Heitz-Lochardet was founded a few years later. All wines were sold for years to Maison Drouhin, who also took care of the vineyards. After graduating in 2011, Brigitte & Christian's son, Armand Heitz, took charge of the domain. In the beginning, he received two small plots of land from the family to explore and test his winemaking skills. After his initial success, he took control of more serious plots, including a smallholding in Chevalier-Montrachet, and produced his first commercial wines in 2013. Since then, each year more and more vineyards have returned to the domain under Armand's control. For the 2017 harvest, his company already consists of 8 hectares, and the Heitz-Lochardet are now among the top in Burgundy.
When Armand Heitz (from the next generation) completed his enology studies in 2011. He started to recover his mother's vineyards and convert them into fully biodynamically grown grapes.
The young man completed his first vintage in 2013. He was guided by consulting oenologist Ludovic Pierrot, who spent eight years at the legendary Domaine Leflaive, together with Anne-Claude Leflaive, the matriarch of Biodynamics in the Cote d 'Or. Ludovic actively assisted Armand in his plan to bring his 5 hectares of vineyards into production in three phases. He made five wines in 2013, eight wines in 2014, and will bottle the last two vineyards in 2015.
The villages that Heitz-Lochardet produces are Chassagne-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru, Meursault, Pommard and Volnay. In addition, there is a small amount of Bourgogne Rouge en Blanc.
The wines are aromatic, extremely balanced, and express their terroir - classic nods to the old-fashioned Burgundian winemaking practices. All of Armand's wines are whole cluster fermentations, as he firmly believes that the essence of a wine is derived from the totality of the vine. Every part of the vine, from roots to leaves, plays an important role in a living wine.