Tasted with Jean-Marc Pillot, in Chassagne-Montrachet, 29 October 2020.
Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot
Le Haut des Champs
21190 Chassagne-Montrachet
Tel: +33 3 80 21 39 95
jeanmarc-pillot.com
More reports for Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot.
Jean-Marc on 2020:
“In 2020 we had a lovely harvest, low volume for the reds but a grand quality in both colours I think.”
Jean-Marc on 2019:
“Nothing is bottled at this stage, the wines were definitely not ready before the harvest. The fruity wines I’ll probably bottle in December but nothing before. There’s 50% less volume though due mainly to the frost – and that was in the 1ers too. The challenge was to keep the vivacity, the energy and an airy quality – and I’m sure the second winter en-masse is a key to this.”
The wines…
2018 brought a consistently great set of wines in this cellar – if anything, they might be even better in the 2019 vintage. If I was wearing one, I’d take my hat off to Jean-Marc!
DIAMs below the Chassagne 1ers, all the rest sealed with cork:
2019 Bourgogne Chardonnay Les Hautes de Champs
A lovely aroma of fine, pure, lemon fruit here – very attractive. Easier in the mouth than the nose suggests, wide, delicious, slowly mouth-watering – I was expecting a little more attack, but this just cruises along, particularly in the finish where it’s great – it just needs to tighten in the middle.
Freshness and depth – a vertical nose – that’s a super invitation. Extra direction and freshness, really mouth-watering, Saline, long – medium weight, maximum flavour. Bravo!
A little more lemon sunshine in this nose. Structural and fresh, really mouth-watering, long – tactile. That’s a super finish. And equally great!
Only half a harvest here
An accent that’s more floral with this wine, finely citrus below. Extra space, lovely melting structure – this is a great set of wines! A fine, texture and the first that suggests a little barrel – but faintly. A fine finish too – such a great entry wine.
Hmm – that’s a nose with a lot of subtle complexity – not a big nose but an engrossing one. Not a particularly sweet wine more the proper and complex agrume experience. Finesse – floral finishing too – bravo!
2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Chenevottes
A larger nose, still elegant and fresh, the smell of the skins of citrus fruit. Cool fruit, silken texture. Mouth-watering, long slow waves of almost juicy flavour. There is so much more to come too… Touched with a little salt, barrel and tannin in the finish – excellent wine.
A little more weight and width to the aromas – still elegantly higher-toned. Crystalline, such purity, minerality, gorgeously citric finishing, with that touch of tannic texture – top – bravo!
2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Macherelles
The first with a little smoky reduction. Wider, a little extra depth to the flavour, also touched by the smoky barrel. Very long, mouth-watering. Another super wine but be a little patient if you want to avoid the barrel…
From 70 year-old vines. Only two barrels – this still in barrel.
A strong core of aroma – a little tighter around this core. More powerful, layered with minerality. Not a brute but muscled and for keeping. Great finishing – a big wave of flavour – great things await! Bravo.
Only 2 metres away but such a difference…
Back to a more floral nose hyper-elegant – and there’s extra perfume with air! Much more supple – but no less wide. Growing in the middle almost bursting and becoming juicy in the finish – always balanced by that small tannic texture, beautiful last drops of green citrus in the finish. Love!
2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Baudines
An extra citrus ripeness in this wine – almost a golden if not quite exotic, fruit. Wide, very mineral, a little extra depth to the texture here. Long slow waves of finishing flavour again – almost patisserie type of flavour. Excellent.
From vines within Vergers that were planted in 1910 – 40 ouvrées, actually the climat is Pitangeret.
A vertical nose, deep with ripe lime. The most round and mouth-filling of these – so fresh and juicily mouth-watering. Very precise, slightly reductive – a purity that is captivating. Almost a little barrel toffee in the finish today. Very complex. Excellent wine, possibly great wine…
2019 Corton-Charlemagne
A width of aroma, lemon, barrel-cream, subtly reductive. A touch of gas. Large-scaled, beautifully mineral. Not quite the same clarity of flavour as some of the previous but this – is large and very long finishing. Very long!
Just above the cabotte of Bouchard.
A broad nose, with a little higher-toned style versus the Charlemagne – intense white flowers, acacia-like. Large-scaled again, here with a clarity that the Charlemagne doesn’t yet show. Complex, a hint of reduction that wasn’t visible elsewhere, very long, digestif. Top!
Les Reds:
A rare domaine in Chassagne – these days – that produces half red, and in this vintage there’s a little more red than white:
Also bottled
Deeply coloured. Big, open, glossy dark fruit. Depth of flavour, slightly structural, mouth-watering – gorgeous dark fruit, no hard edges just a faint tannin without grain. Bravo Bourgogne.
The parcel touches Chassagne, Claude Buzard and Pierre-Yves Colin also have vines here. This racked last week.
Also a very forward, purer red fruit, wide, hyper attractive nose. Rounder, the same purity as the nose. Long, faintly, texturally tannic though again without grain. Bravo.
From about 2.5 hectares of vines in three parcels, parcels mainly planted by father and grandfather so vines of at least 45 years average age.
Starting deeper, here’s a nose that needs air – slowly blossoming with a style not dissimilar to the Santenay, if less forward. Like the nose, starting a little more compact, framed by its tannin, once more with no grain. Reaching the heights in the finish – a truly great finish, the wine before needing more time and/or air. Should be great.
2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Macherelles
The domaine has a little white here too – but there’s more red.
Vertical, floral above, complex but less communicative below. Mouth-filling, flavourful but not divulging all its secrets today. Like the last, there’s a lot that’s on display in the finish – just an accent of barrel here too. Not a bruising Chassagne red, really a finesse. Excellent wine.
2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot
A more obvious dark berry-fruit nose. Mouth-filling again, here the impression is of a little intensity in the width. An extra salinity, perhaps licorice towards the end. A beautiful finish but the least open of all here. The flavour ‘sticks’ in the finish. Be patient with this one.
An attack of dark-red berries – such a difference. The most mouth-filling of all, in this case also with the most freshness. Layers of fine and energetic, mouth-watering, flavour. Perfumed finishing. That’s my new favourite. Bravo!
There is one response to “Jean-Marc Pillot – 2019”
J-M Pillot makes a consistently superb Clos St Jean Rouge. From all accounts the whole vineyard should be planted to pinot.