Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Late to complete its malolactic fermentation in 2017, this wine comes from a limestone-based hollow on the northern side of the village that's particularly susceptible to frost. It's definitely a richer, slightly more exotic style, but everything is relative with Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey's wines. Bready, oatmeal aromas segue into a palate that marries pear, peach and citrus fruit.
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Jasper Morris
Pale in colour, though my immediate impression was that the bouquet showed much less reductively than in the past – far less of the struck match aromatics. The wine fills out on the palate to a thick textured white apple fruit, with just a few underlying reductive notes after all. A fine and persistent Chenevottes, already pleasing. 13% alcohol. Drink from now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aromas of crisp yellow orchard fruit, honeycomb, spices and white flowers introduce the 2017 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Chenevottes, a medium to full-bodied wine with tangy acids and a chalky, tensile profile, concluding with a long, saline finish. This is another cuvée from Colin's domaine holdings, deriving from two plantings, one aged 45 and the other 60 years old.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Wine Spectator
Lean and on the sharp side, offering lemon, flint and spice flavors. Taut and unyielding now, but persists, with lemon and spice notes on the long finish. Best from 2021 through 2026. 30 cases imported.
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.