Winemaker Notes
Mixing notes of frangipane and warm pastries, the nose explodes from a shining liquid. The mouthfeel is generous and the wine’s body is broad and coating. The maturity of the grape is in charge here.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Chartron’s Clos du Cailleret is a regal premier cru. This emblematic cuvée of the Chartron family is particularly successful in 2021, with exotic aromas of guava and pomelo, lemon, and spice. The texture is concentrated and rich, with no lack of acidity but an equally impressive richness in extract for balance. The vines come from the Chartron parcel of nearly a hectare at the northern end of the Clos. The grapes are lightly crushed and slowly pressed before fermentation in cask (25% new)—genuinely delicious wine.
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Jasper Morris
13 barrels from one hectare. A full primrose yellow. The nose shows a touch more ripeness than Clos de la Pucelle. Ripe pears, and just a touch of the mandarin notes that you get attached to Sauternes, without suggesting any rot however. Juicy and long. Drink from 2026-2032.
Barrel Sample: 91-94 -
Vinous
The 2021 Puligny-Montrachet Clos du Cailleret 1er Cru offers subtle tropical fruit on the nose: guava, passion fruit and hints of pineapple. Initially lacking a bit of mineralité and terroir expression, it comes through nicely with aeration. The palate is fresh on the entry, balanced and introverted at first, but just give it a few minutes and it reveals wonderful generosity and mineralité with a long, long finish.
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.