Francois Carillon Puligny-Montrachet Clos du Vieux Chateau 2017
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Robert
Parker
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Puligny-Montrachet Le Clos du Vieux Château hails from a parcel of old vines surrounded by high walls. It's an excellent wine that offers up complex notes of ripe lemons, candle wax, smoke, wet stones, white flowers and oatmeal. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, satiny-textured and fleshy while remaining nicely mineral and precise, with excellent concentration and length, concluding with a saline finish. This is a first rate Puligny village.
Barrel Sample: 90-92
The Carillon family domaine dates back to the 16th century. The winemaking tradition has been passed down from father to son since 1632 when a Carillon viticulteur is recorded, and even since 1520 when a Jehan Carillon is mentioned in archives. The family still occupies the same site as they did then in Puligny-Montrachet, between the church and the old château which belonged to the original nobles of the village. The motif on their label, showing a grape harvesting knife and the year 1632, is a reproduction of a carving above the door frame. The cuverie is built with the stones of the old château. Over the years, additional buildings throughout the village were added to the Carillon's holdings and converted to winemaking facilities. Today François Carillon leads the estate, crafting wines of tradition and finesse that show an extremely deft use of oak. The domaine produces Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru, villages Puligny-Montrachet, several Puligny-Montrachet Premier Crus, villages Chassagne Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Crus, a Saint Aubin Premier Cru, and Bourgogne Chardonnay and Aligotéiant.
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.