Maison Pascal Clement Meursault 2013
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Pascal Clement was born in the village of Savigny-les-Beaune to a family of growers, where his father founded the Maison in 1950. After over 20 years as a grower and winemaker in the region – including his time at legendary Domaine Coche-Dury in Meursault - he launched his own micro-négoçiant project in 2012. The wines live in a stunning building built in 1850 with a splendid arched cellar, housing 200 barrels. Pascal works with fifteen farmers / vineyard owners with vineyard holdings across Burgundy, personally selecting and tending the plots he chooses to work with.
Pascal’s winemaking philosophy is very non-interventional. All the wines are fermented with native yeasts and undergo malolactic naturally (depending on vintage). In 2016, a “salty” year, the whites all completed malo while in 2015, Pascal chose to halt malolactic. The wines rest in barrel with no lees stirring/ bâtonnage. For reds, Pascal prefers Rousseau barrels and whites are in Damy, Billon, and François Frères. Recently, Pascal started moving to larger 500L casks for aging, finding better balance of wood to wine compared to the 225L Burgundy barrels he had been using.
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.
Known to offer a magical balance of smoothness and freshness, Meursault's quality is hard to rival. The village lies in the middle of Côte de Beaune, just south of Volnay. Meursault is said to mean “mouse’s jump” because in the past the plots producing Pinot Noir and those producing Chardonnay were no more than a mouse’s jump from one another. Today the village is almost exclusively Chardonnay. A tiny bit of Pinot Noir is produced here with the best coming from Les Santenots on its northern side near Volnay.
While there are no Grands Crus, Meursault’s numerous acclaimed Premiers Crus can compete with any other top-notch white Burgundy. Some to know are Les Perrières, Les Genevrières, Les Charmes, Le Poruzot, Les Bouchères and Les Gouttes d’Or.
Meursault produces outstanding village level wines as well. In general great Premiers Crus and even village level Meursault (Chardonnay) have enticing aromas of lime peel, tropical fruit, crushed rocks, spice and hazelnut. On the palate there is a wonderful balance of brightness and a seductive length with flavors of white peach, pineapple and citrus.