Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Saint Aubin 1er Cru le Charmois, which sees a modest 5% new wood, has a crisp and slightly floral bouquet, just a hint of white peach coming through flanked by vanilla. The palate is fresh on the entry, very fine line of acidity, very tensile with a refined, quite sophisticated, Puligny-like finish. This is an excellent Saint Aubin from the domaine.
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Wine Enthusiast
Although the domaine is mainly centered on Chassagne-Montrachet, neighboring Saint-Aubin is hardly far. This ripe, yellow and citrus-fruit-flavored wine is already delicious. Touches of toast from wood aging along with balanced acidity give it both crispness and richness.
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Wine Spectator
Apple, peach and citrus notes are shaded by sweet baking spices in this sleek, crunchy white. Finishes with a mouthwatering tang. Drink now through 2020.
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.