Winemaker Notes
Expressive nose developing red berry notes and a light oaky hint. Tender and delicate, with an elegant structure, this is a wine with of charm. Good ageing potential.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Supple and comfortably rich, this wine’s red fruit feels plump, even as there’s muscle in its stemmy tannins, firming up the finish. It lasts on earthy notes of tree bark and forest floor. With a few years of bottle age, the fruit should lengthen out to meet that woodland complexity.
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James Suckling
This is locked into attractive, spicy and quite exotic ripe cherries and pomegranates. Cherry-pastry notes, too. The palate has a smoothly rendered and approachable, mellow-tannin bed with a supple, fleshy finish. Drink in the next six years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From bottle, the 2017 Chambolle-Musigny Village confirms its strong showing from barrel, bursting with aromas of raspberries, cherries, sweet spices and dried flowers. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, broad and satiny, with lovely balance and depth of fruit at the core, ripe balancing acids and supple structuring tannins. This is a charming but serious Chambolle that will offer a broad drinking window.
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Wine Spectator
The silky texture sets the pace for black currant, blueberry and violet aromas and flavors. Sleek and concentrated, with a lingering, spice-tinged aftertaste. Best from 2021 through 2032.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Bouchard Père & Fils Chambolle-Musigny shows excellent style and elegance. TASTING NOTES: This is an alluring wine that drinks very well. Its aromas and flavors of bright black fruit and pleasing savory spices should pair its superbly with garlic and rosemary-infused rotisserie of lamb. (Tasted: March 14, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Chambolle-Musigny represents the charm of the Côte de Nuits district of Burgundy. But you’ll find that term mainly in reference to the vineyards in its southern stretches, which border Clos Vougeot: the Grand Cru of Le Musingy and in part, its neighboring and most exceptional Premier Cru, Les Amoureuses. Some producers argue for the primacy of Les Amoureuses and its eligibility for Grand Cru status given its wines can sometimes surpass other Grands Crus.
Le Musigny ranks on par with the most acclaimed Grands Crus for Pinot Noir: Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Richebourg, Chambertin, and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. It is also the only Grand Cru in Côte de Nuits for Chardonnay. All of the others are in Côte de Beaune.
This village can in fact claim only two Grands Crus vineyards and—in the context of breaking down the minutiae—they are markedly different. Bonnes-Mares, the other one at the far northern end above the village, bordering Morey-St-Denis, offers power, strength and great aging potential. But Chambolle-Musigny includes a nice handful of exceptional Premiers Crus, as noted above with Les Amoureuses as the finest. Le Fuees and Les Cras are other noteworthy Premiers Crus.
Overall, a top Chambolle-Musigny offers pure aromas of violets, dark cherry and damp earth, coupled with a velvety elegance, supple mid-palate, an abundance of black and red berry, and finesse and power through a long and fine-grained finish.