Tasted in Chassagne-Montrachet with Lucie Coutoux, 19 October 2023.
Domaine Michel Niellon
Le Haut des Champs
21190 Chassagne-Montrachet
Tel: +33 3 80 24 70 17
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More reports with Domaine Michel Niellon
Lucie on 2023:
“We had a little bit more production than in 2022 and were happy with the harvest.”
Lucie on 2022:
“Hot and dry! We started to pick already on the 25
The wines…
Always a classy range at this address – including the reds! I never know which ones are going to show the best – but for 2 years in a row, it’s been the same two wines!
All bottled in November and have moved all but the Chevalier to a technical seal – cork amalgam in the style of a DIAM. In the previous vintage some mixed bottlings were done to compare the results:
2022 Bourgogne Chardonnay
One parcel directly in front of the winery – 12-year-old vines.
Fresh and inviting aromatic volume with a subtle but more than engaging noble reduction. Easy in the mouth with a lovely mobile, mouth-watering style – I find it a hint soft and sweet but it’s still delicious.
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet
20 different parcels – 10 climats. Worth 20,000 bottles – 40% of the domaine’s production and a new planting will soon come online too.
This nose is more compact and also a hint sweet. In the mouth, I like more the shape of this – another wine with juiciness – then broadening in the finish with more density and fine shape – that will be lovely.
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Maltroie
Largest parcel of the domaine with almost 1 hectare of 3 different vine ages, plus some pinot. Took out half of the young (2012) vines in 2020 there was a problem with the 161-49 root-stock here. There’s still no real solution, certainly with so many consecutive hot vintage and vines planted in drier places.
A little more airy style to this nose, faintly floral. Ooh – that’s beautiful in the mouth – crystalline and with wonderful energy. The width of this finish extending much further and holding strongly – even blind, that’s a big step up. Excellent wine!
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Champs Gains
Ooh – now that’s the best nose so far – super – a vibration of energy here – such an invitation. Larger scale with more salinity. Cushioned and so contemplatively involving – never lacking balance too. Holding a strong finish. Really lovely.
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Chenevottes
Two neighbouring parcels but with different vine ages.
A fine clarity to this core of ripe citrus with a faintly floral overlay. More muscle here, sinuous. Cleaner cut and more direct than the Champsgains. Yes!
Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Vergers
The vines are pulled for replanting – so no Vergers for a few years.
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos St.Jean
On high, near the quarry – two parcels – one in CSJ and the other in the climat below of Rebichets. Again with pinot – they pulled out their pinot as there was disease but when it comes time to replant they will still replant pinot.
Another more airy nose, quite floral energy here too. Supple but clean and fresh – another wine with plenty of salinity – in this case really silky too. Little star-bursts of finishing complexity too. Elegant and concentrated in one package. Already excellent – maybe even better with patience!
High on the hillside with domaine’s oldest vines. Not much soil here so the vines can have water stress. Just under one ha, Also Paul & Francois Jouard – just 3 producers from here. More than 100 year-old vines.
A beautiful and silky width of aroma. Supple and silky but here’s muscle and minerality too – this is the complete wine from the range with a fine burst of finishing intensity. It’s wonderful – bravo!
2022 Chevalier-Montrachet
The only parcel of the domaine in Puligny, just below some of the vines of Bouchard, both sides of this parcel are owned by Leflaives – but different ones – and below is Laguiche in Montrachet. One could say ‘well-placed.’ A gift of marriage for Lucie’s great-great grandmother – a nice gift 😉 Here the only one with cork – ‘the most expensive.’
A smaller nose but one with an inviting vibration of energy. Extra width and mineral energy here – certainly more complex, that’s been softened with a veneer of sweetish barrel – which will, of course fade. I’d love to see this in 10 years – but it’s cork sealed…
Les Reds:
Lucie: “I came to the domaine in 2017. My grandfather and father didn’t have enough time for the reds, I remember that in October my father would say “Sorry about the red but I have to go hunting!””
From three different parcels.
Direct, fresh, dark, plenty of graphite complexity – a wild invitation. Ooh – but this is silkier and much more sophisticated than the nose suggests – there’s concentration and balance and delicious wine. For the second consecutive vintage, that’s a great RED Chassagne!
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Maltroie Rouge
A calmer, more pure and sophisticated nose. There’s more architectural structure. Depth of textured, almost granular flavour complexity here – there’s tannin but no austerity – this is delicious – I tasted much more tannic wines chez Dujac this morning!!! Simply excellent wine!