Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Although near Champelots, La Chatenière is more a continuation of En Remilly, delivering wines with lemony fruit and crisp acidity. The family farms three parcels here; the one with younger vines brings acidity, the other two are 50–60 years of age and deliver ripeness and volume. The blend of all three produces a marvellous result. The grapes are pressed as whole clusters and fermented in cask, one-third new.
Barrel Sample: 94 -
Jasper Morris
A clean lemon yellow. This is really classy in bouquet, with an agreeable ripeness of fruit without losing the steely character, filling the middle of the palate with more in reserve behind, medium acidity, fine length, a very complete St-Aubin. Drink from 2027-2032. Tasted Oct 2024.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Vinous
The 2023 Saint-Aubin La Chatenière 1er Cru has more reduction on the nose compared to Colin's other Premier Crus. The palate is fresh on the entry, quite intense with a little flintiness in the background. Once the 2023 is in bottle, its razor-sharp finish is going to be a killer. This might need a bit more time in bottle but it's a superb articulation of this vineyard.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aromas of pear, white flowers, nutmeg, toasted hazelnuts and clear honey introduce the 2023 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru La Chatenière, a medium to full-bodied, ample and satiny wine that's seamless and saline. Precise but open, this will offer a broad drinking window.
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.