Chassagne-Montrachet

Chassagne is relatively unknown to many wine drinkers, and even a bit of a mystery to other residents of the Côte de Beanue. As the most southern part of the Côte d’Or’s major villages, it keeps it itself. That insularity is on display by the sheer frequency with which the same names - Colin, Morey, and Pillot in particular - recur on the town’s signage, representing a handful of powerful and sprawling families who have consolidated in the village.

But Chassagne is also an enigma wine-wise. Yes, it has a share of two Grand Crus - Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet, which cross the border between Puligny and Chassagne - but most of the wine it produces has little to do with those two celebrities, who may have a foot in Chassagne, but primarily reside in Puligny. Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet is all Chassagne, but considered the lease of the Grand Cru suite from here.

Though it’s known for its white wine today, Chassagne’s vineyards produced mostly red in the nineteenth century, and even local vintners agree that the bulk of its soils may be better for red. But now, even if half of Chassagne’s production is in red, that percentage is dwindling as Chassagne’s Chardonnay is in greater demand and fetches far better prices than its Pinot Noir. “Many vineyards that were red, people are now putting in white,” Pierre-Yves Colin tells us. “But these places were never really great in red. And they will not be really great in white,” he says, insinuating that his village possesses a lot of middling soils that lack the perfect balance of clay and limestone. In the best vineyards, though, the best color orientation is clear, and it’s always for white wine.

Pierre-Yves represents a changing of the guard in Chassagne. The 1970s to 1990s was the heyday of producers like Ramonet, Niellon, and Gagnard, who pushed a rich, sometimes unctuous and unapologetically oaky style of Chassagne. The wines were mineral, but often lacked the posture of Puligny and the mellifluous modulations of Meursault. Today, the new wave, led by younger producers like Pierre-Yves, Alex Moreau, and Vincent Dancer, are tapping Chassagne’s mineral reserves for racy, razor-sharp wines.

TASTING NOTES

These days, with top producers seeking a racy style, Chassagne can produce some of the most raw, mineral wines on the Côte de Beaune. The wines don’t always knit together in the sleek, professional package you find in other villages - that is, they may often seem unbalanced in the fruit direction, or overly acid and stony - but the raw material is compelling.

Chassagne’s higher vineyards, planted on the slopes of a big quarry, make wines that crackle with acid and power. Wines from Morgeot wrap that core minerality in a sheath of lemon to apricot flesh. Except in its vineyards right on the border with Puligny - Chenevottes, Blanchot Dessus, and Enseignères - Chassagne doesn’t have Puligny’s fruit and robustness, or its sleek contours. Nor does it have Meursault’s polished, elemental flash.

top producers

Paul Pillot

This multi-generation domaine is now in the hands of young vigneron Thierry Pillot, who by all accounts is obsessed with improving his farming, a quality that shows in the vibrance and freshness of the wines, which aim for an impressively focused, linear, high-energy style. Be on the lookout for Chassagnes like Clos St-Jean, La Montagne, and Grandes Ruchottes

PIERRE-YVES COLIN-MOREY

This domaine, run by Pierre-Yves Colin and his wife, Caroline Morey, is one of the most impressive new domaines of the Côte de Beaune. Pierre-Yves is a tireless farmer and the quality of his raw material shows in his wines’ energy and drive. A lack of judiciousness with new oak in the past have evolved into a more considered, integrated approach. However, these wines, even the Bourgogne Blanc, can often benefit from a little bottle age (from two to ten years).

DOMAINE BERNARD MOREAU

Alex and Benoit Moreau have taken over from their father, but continue his style, which depends on pristine fruit from a number of great vineyards, aged in barrel (a minority percentage of which are new), to find a path down the middle between racy and rocky and fruity and fleshy. Their Chassagnes are top-notch, especially Enseignères, Chenevottes, Maltroie, and Caillerets.

detailed map