Winemaker Notes
This is the domaine's newest terroir, and possible one of the best. When they bought this plot for less than 800€, it had been abandoned since the phylloxera crisis. The clos, surrounded by a dry stone wall nearly two meters high, was originally owned by the Abbey of Cluny. It took nearly ten years to get the land ready for planting: the soil had to be prepared and the vineyard adapted to tractor use, all while ensuring they kept the walls! The replant started in 2011 and in 2015 the vineyard produced the first vintage. It is already as mineral and complex as Les Perrières, and will no doubt be an exceptional wine in years to come.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Another cuvée where Guillot extended élevage by six months, the 2019 Mâcon-Cruzille Clos de la Mollepierre offers up scents of buttered citrus, pear, macadamia nut, beeswax, smoke and white flowers. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and textural, it's deep and concentrated, with chalky extract and a long, saline finish. Rating : 93+
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.
These are the fun, fruit-driven and lively Chardonnays of white Burgundy, often offering some fantastic values and options that you don’t have to cellar. Flavors range from fresh green apple and lemon to melon or pineapple; some of the best are fleshy and mineral driven or balanced by a light touch of oak.
Mâconnais Chardonnay may have the weight of their more serious Côte de Beaune sisters, but not quite the refinement. Still, this appellation is one of the best ways to jump from California Chardonnay to something new and begin to understand white Burgundy.
The Mâconnais region is warmer and drier than the rest of Burgundy to its north (Côte d’Or) and has a landscape of rolling hills and farmland interspersed among vineyards. The region produces a lot of Chardonnay—Viré-Clessé and Pouilly-Fuisse are among the best—and a very small amount of red wine from Gamay and Pinot Noir. The soils of Mâconnais remain limestone dominant like in the Côte d’Or, making it a wonderful spot for Chardonnay to thrive. Gamay's home of Beaujolais lies just to the south.