Winemaker Notes
Gold color in appearance. An elegant nose with notes of “pain grillé," orchard fruit of citrus and apple. Gorgeous purity on the palate, minerality and a stunning length that ends in an amazingly intense finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Appealing smoke and oyster shell aromas frame hazelnut, peach and pastry flavors in this complex, harmonious white. The luscious texture embraces a beam of acidity, keeping this defined and extending the finish. Smooth and balanced, this is tempting to drink now but will be even better in a year or two. Best from 2022 through 2032.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru unwinds in the glass with aromas of crisp yellow orchard fruit, acacia honey, fresh pastry, crushed mint, citrus oil and blanched almonds. On the palate, it's full-bodied, muscular and enveloping, with a deep and multidimensional core, lively acids and chalky structuring extract, concluding with a long and reverberative finish. While this is quite an open and expressive vintage chez Ramonet, the Bâtard will certainly reward some bottle age.
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 Côte de Beaune village of Burgundy most famous for its beautifully textured and powerful whites, Chassagne-Montrachet reaches farthest south in the Côte d’Or, save for the village of Santenay. It has three Grands Crus vineyards: Le Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet and Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet. Le Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet overlap with and are (confusingly) shared with the village of Puligny-Montrachet. But Chassagne-Montrachet bears sole ownership of the Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru.
The beauty doesn’t stop there as the village has a great many outstanding Premiers Crus wines and village level wines. Most famous Premiers Crus vineyards include Les Chenevottes, Clos de la Maltroie, En Cailleret and Les Ruchottes. Also, village level wines offer many lovely examples of what Chassagne-Montrachet has to offer, but at more approachable price points and perhaps less demand of waiting.
The best sites in Chassagne-Montrachet have complex soils of sedimentary rock and limestone (with less marl). Whites, which are by law composed of 100% Chardonnay (as in all classified white Burgundy from Côte d’Or), have steely power, bright and concentrated citrus, stone or tropical fruit characteristics and attractive textures ranging from plush to tactile, grippy and mineral-driven.
There is some fine Pinot Noir produced from the village. These wines tend to be high-toned and earthy, with wild herb aromas and suave tannins.