Winemaker Notes
More limestone in the soil compared to Charmois. Native yeast fermentation in stainless steel. Aged in French oak barrels for 24 months, less than 15% new. 30-45 g/L sulfur added at bottling. Corpulent, lemon curd with zippy acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
Fresh mid lemon yellow. There is surprising power to the bouquet of this wine, no excessive yield here! The bouquet builds very stylish with a mineral thread through white fruit. Plenty of oak at the finish in support of the fruit. Long and fine. Some more oak emerges on the nose, but still not excessive.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Satiny and incisive, the 2018 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Champlots offers up aromas of Meyer lemon, white flowers and nutmeg, followed by a medium to full-bodied, bright and nicely structured palate with a tangy spine of acidity and good grip on the finish. This has turned out very well.
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.