Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
There's not much of this tiny cuvée to go round, sourced as it is from a 0.179ha sliver in the highest part of this premier cru, but it's worth employing a private detective to track it down. All the hallmarks of Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey's winemaking style are present here in quintessence: brightness, poise and chiselled focus, with amazing purity and balance, stylish oak and thrilling palate length.
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Wine Spectator
Featuring more bright fruit than its peers, this white exudes notes of lemon, citrus blossom, citronella, white peach and hazelnut, underscored by toasty oak. Intense and pure, boosted by a racy structure. Terrific length. Best from 2021 through 2029. 5 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From one of Pierre-Yves Colin's finest domaine holdings, the 2017 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets offers up aromas of noisette, white flowers, beeswax, Anjou pear and crushed chalk. On the medium to full-bodied palate, the wine is quite closed but extremely promising, revealing a deep, concentrated core framed by tangy acids and chalky dry extract, concluding with a long, penetrating finish.
Barrel Sample: 92-94
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.