Tasted with Jean-Marc Pillot, pictured with son, Antonin, in Chassagne-Montrachet, 29 September 2022.
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 2021:
“We’ve always seen the frost at the bottom of the slopes but it’s now starting to move up the hillsides! We do all the work ourselves – no hired help – so it’s impossible to do everything as ‘late pruning.’ A misery – there’s no Rully or Montagny and certainly no Chevalier-Montrachet… It was a little better in the reds; All are under 13° and there’s no chaptalization for any of them.”
The wines…
Very good wines here and even a couple that were clearly worthy of a special search – but given how extravagantly fabulous the 2020s were, I suspect that I tasted on a ‘quiet day’ for this particular cellar.
A rare domaine in Chassagne – these days – that produces half red, and in this vintage there’s a little more red than white. DIAMs below the Chassagne 1ers, all the rest sealed with cork – Trescasses NDTech:
2021 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Les Grands Terres
Pretty, precise, berry fruit. Mouth-filling, open, slowly fading, just a very attractive and well-put-together wine.
2021 Chassagne-Montrachet Vieilles-Vignes
Usually 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. In this vintage there’s only about 1 hectare worth!
More overt and with more depth to this nose – still with high tones. Incisive but with flavour moving over the palate – with extra intensity – spreading wider. Lovely, and no hard edges despite the extra concentration.
2021 Santenay Champs Claude
The parcel touches Chassagne, Claude Muzard and Pierre-Yves Colin also have vines here.
More intense red berry, slightly cushioned, still. More forward acidity, a little extra tannin in the finishing flavour but a bright and deliciously energetic wine – the Chassagne is calm by comparison.
2021 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Macherelles
The domaine has a little white here too – but there’s more red.
Much more elegant and less forward aromas. It’s a similar tale in the mouth; the acidity is clear but here delivered with a width and a caress. That’s a delicate and again very delicious wine.
2021 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot Fairendes
More essence of cherry to this red fruit. Fuller, but fine texture, large rolling waves of flavour over the palate. The most persistent finishing wine so far… It’s a beauty.
2021 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos St.Jean
More airy and more overtly perfumed too. Here it’s the energy to the fore, the acidity cushioned by the rest of the wine. The finish also with lots of perfume and an equally long finish just less assertive vs the Fairendes today.
Les Whites:
2021 Bourgogne Chardonnay Les Hautes de Champs
Cushioned, almost a suggestion of caramel in the flavours. Hmm – a little saline accent, vibrant, tasty and a super intense finish – quite delicious!
2021 St.Romain Les Perrières
Only half a harvest here
Airy, but less communicative. I love the shape of this open, vibrant, freshly attractive. Yum!
2021 Chassgne-Montrachet
A little extra width and depth. Here a faint reduction, broad, fuller, melting with a growing intensity of flavour – citrus but more rarely citrus skin – direct and long. Yum again…
2021 Puligny-Montrachet Les Noyers Bret
More airy and perfumed wine. Hmm, a little stony at the core but with the best combination of shape and energy, so far. Slow moving waves of flavour in the finish
2021 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot Fairendes
More compact, faintly accented with the barrel. Extra structure – an architecture – the oak is quite present today but the quality of the fruit is also there. Really excellent but give this a little time in bottle…
2021 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Macherelles
This was the first test plot that was put in organic by Antonin – the results were so good – the rest of the domaine is now in conversion.
Another modest volume of aroma, here cushioned with a little barrel. Open, mineral, delicious wine – this is really super and has a little of the stoniness of the Puligny too – the barrel hardly noticeable in the flavours. The finish holding strongly.
2021 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Vergers
‘Only 2 metres away but such a difference…’ Planted after the war – so about 70 years old.
More mineral and a little green citrus for this nose. Mineral again in the flavours but rather than the width of the last it’s more of a core of flavour here.
2021 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Caillerets
6 barrels in 2022 but only one for this vintage.
Some stony fruit and elegance. Great mouth-filling shape – fluid, open, melting – the most attractive shape of all so far.
From vines within Vergers that were planted in 1910 – 40 ouvrées, actually the climat is Pitangeret. On lees since the harvest.
A different perfume but airy if far from forward. Wide, intense, hyper-impressive wine – another keeper – wait 3-5 years but what a zing to this wine!
Ooh now this is showing – broad – open, detailed, slightly stony – that’s a lovely nose. An architectural wine, one of already, definition and pure intensity. This is really a top CC. Bravo!