Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very sophisticated Chassagne-Montrachet. Less aromatically extravagant than most of the 2019 white Burgundies, this opens slowly as it aerates in the glass. So many nuances of white fruit and jasmine. Ripe and rich, but very elegant, with a suave and supple texture that makes it glide over your palate. Drink or hold.
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Jasper Morris
Pale lemon and lime, a bit more lifted than the Abbaye. This is a very substantial wine with lifted fruit, more in plums than pears, clearly ripe, showing its power, but still very well balanced.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot Clos de la Chapelle (Duc de Magenta) is another success, offering up aromas of crisp stone fruit, orange oil, buttered toast, struck flint and iodine. Medium to full-bodied, deep and complete, it's a satiny, layered, textural wine, with bright acids and a long, expansive finish. Best after 2025.
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.