Winemaker Notes
Complex nose, harmonious and hovering : white flowers, fresh herbs, white fruits, yellow fruits, acacia honey, fine pastry, rubbed flint, whipped cream. For a delicate palate, with volume, tasty fruit, sapidity, minerality and enormous length.
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Blanchot-Dessus is essentially a southern continuation of Le Montrachet. The domaine-owned parcel here normally yields a rich, complex wine that is among the Girardin signatures. There is elegant, ripe pear fruit, scented with white flowers and a touch of butter. On the palate, the acidity is a bit soft yet still sufficient to balance both the rich fruit character and sturdy breadth produced here.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Blanchots Dessus is another of the portfolio's highlights. Mingling aromas of pear, orange oil and confit citrus with hints of clear honey, white flowers, fresh pastry and hazelnuts, it's full-bodied, satiny and ample, with an enveloping core of fruit, lively acids and a sensual, seamless profile. This is one of the most dramatic wines in the range. Best after 2023.
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.