Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
Fine pale lemon, this has a racy yet full bouquet, generous but chiselled fruit, with some lemon citrus notes dancing around the central core of deep white fruit. Not quite so concentrated towards the back but still a lovely, classy wine with a fine long finish.
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Decanter
This wine ‘should be a grand cru’ says winemaker Benoit Landanger. It has a wonderfully aromatic nose, elegant and precise with white floral tones underpinned by mineral lemon zest - it gets even better just half an hour later - a touch more tropical and evocative. It has a soft, honeyed toast aspect to the nose also giving interest. The palate is fresh and mouthwatering, layered with citrus fruits, peach, bruised apple and marzipan-almond edges. There are touches of stone and flint notes giving texture as well as touches of oak spice noticeable on the finish. Give it time to soften and integrate - this is a wine that will go on and on. From a 0.17ha walled plot planted in 1976 on stony limestone terroir. The wine is aged on the lees for 16-18 months, of which 12 months are spent in oak barrels. Organic and biodynamic farming.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A source of some of the finest, juicy, silky and elegantly floral Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet lies just to the north of Chassagne-Montrachet, a village with which it shares two of its Grands Crus vineyards: Le Montrachet itself and Bâtard-Montrachet. Its other two, which it owns in their entirety, are Chevalier-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. And still, some of the finest white Burgundy wines come from the prized Premiers Crus vineyards of Puligny-Montrachet. To name a few, Les Pucelles, Le Clavoillon, Les Perrières, Les Referts and Les Combettes, as well as the rest, lie northeast and up slope from the Grands Crus.
Farther to the southeast are village level whites and the hamlet of Blagny where Pinot Noir grows best and has achieved Premier Cru status.