Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Offers a lovely lemon peel and mineral-inflected aroma, with hints of linden flowers and orange blossom. The texture is silky but not light; there is plenty of acidity to carry the weight of the extract. The grapes are from nearly 1ha of east-facing vines overlooking En Remilly; they are lightly crushed and gently pressed before fermentation in cask, 20% new. Give this two or three years in the cellar before opening and enjoy it over the next decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Charmois has turned out beautifully this year, offering up notes of citrus zest, lime leaf, nutmeg and hazelnuts. Medium- to full-bodied, satiny and precise, with good cut, density and persistence, it's worth seeking out.
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 steep, upcountry basin (referred to as a combe in French) in the southern end of the Côte de Beaune, St. Aubin is a direct westerly neighbor to Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet. Recent years have seen a boom in white wine production so that now Chardonnay accounts for more than three quarters of area under vine here. Two thirds of St. Aubin is classified Premier Cru (30 total vineyards); most notable include Les Charmois, La Chatenière, En Remilly and Les Murgers Dents de Chie. The Premiers Crus of St. Aubin, wrapping like a ribbon upon the southeast and southwest facing slopes, produce fresh and elegant whites from Chardonnay. When young, these tout a refreshing grip and convey qualities of white flowers, citrus, pear, green almond and wet stone. Given some age, a graceful evolution occurs so that older St. Aubin whites express richer aromas of beeswax, honey, marzipan and spice.