Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
Damien Colin is much more of a fan of Chatenière now that he has this particular plot to work with. Pale colour with the lightest of green tints. The nose is graceful and classy, with a sense of more weight behind. Really quite a lot more fruit weight here, admirable tension, a few apples dancing at the finish, bravo. Very good weight behind.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Opening in the glass with scents of pear, fresh peach, orange oil and pastry cream, the 2019 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru La Chatenière is medium to full-bodied, chiseled and concentrated, with an elegantly textural attack, a layered core and fine length and grip on the finish.
Barrel Sample: 91-93
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.