Winemaker Notes
Chandon de Briailles has a healthy three hectares planted to Pinot Noir, located in an area with a nice slope, and a good mix of clay and limestone. It's safe to say that Ile along with Bressandes are the flagship wines of the domaine. The 2018 has very pretty fruit, was super elegant, and the structure felt very well integrated with the tannins perfectly in the background.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Unwinding in the glass with notes of raspberries, plums and cherries, complemented by hints of warm spices, dark chocolate and rose petal, the 2018 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Ile de Vergelesses is medium to full-bodied, supple and layered, with a charming core of fruit underpinned by an elegantly muscular chassis of powdery tannin.
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.”
Occupying the most northerly combe (the French term for a valley that cuts through a hillside) of the Côte de Beaune, Pernand-Vergelles sits to the west of and behind the hill of Corton. The most sought after whites of the village come from the slope of Pernand on the side of Corton where Pernand-Vergelles shares the Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne with Aloxe-Corton. The best red producing Cru is Les Vergelles, which overlaps into Savigny-les-Beaune. Reds here are fleshy, seductive and structured while whites are both lively and age worthy.