Tasted with Jean-Marc Pillot, in Chassagne-Montrachet, 13 December 2021.
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.”
Jean-Marc on 2020:
“2020 was a good year; a good harvest in the whites with 50 hl/ha but it was lower than average in the reds. We started harvesting 21st August and I thought, perhaps, it was too early but I think we did the right thing, I’m very happy with the wines – I worried that they would be southern-styled or offer a hint of 2003 but not a bit of it…”
The wines…
One of my white-wine highlights of the year – great, great wines – as was also the case for their 2019s. The reds are fine too, though I slightly preferred their 2019s!
Bottling planned for March/April. DIAMs below the Chassagne 1ers, all the rest sealed with cork – Trescasses NDTech:
Broad, forward, yellow-fruited freshness with a modest coating of creamy oak. Ooh – that’s really gorgeous – direct, pure, saline too. Great Bourgogne long and satisfying, mineral and fruit in harmony.
Only half a harvest here
An extra width, more structural but also very interesting and lightly herbed. More direct, more mineral, a suggestion of attractive pyrazine complexity – but a great finish too – that’s an excellent, possibly great wine.
Here there’s extra depth, again fine yellow citrus. Oh yes – direct, vibrant, complex – great, great Rully!
2020 Rully 1er Les Raclots
A more subdued, less open, nose. Like the last, direct but a little more padding and fat – a little oak too – but this is direct and more mineral. I prefer the joie de vivre of the previous but this remains an excellent wine – the oak showing in the finish here today.
Very airy and fine – it’s a good invitation. Ouch – that’s gots super minerality and structure. Superbly direct. Finishing more saline – that’s super again!
There’s some discretion here, but not enough to hide gorgeously enticing aromas – yes! Wide, mineral but melting flavour superbly over the palate – faintly saline/spiced – super-long finishing. Classic and a beauty. Bravo!
2020 Puligny-Montrachet Les Noyers Bret
Deeper, faintly reductive – not showing all it has to start but becoming better and better with aeration. More open, more fluid, perhaps more mineral too. Proper tension. Today I like the extra attractiveness of the Meursault – but this is simply excellent villages!
Also a more compact nose yet the width is more overt here. More mouth-filling – the intensity showing differently – it’s more overt but like the others a wine of clarity and detail – another top villages! Long, wide waves of finishing flavour here…
More open, pure and detailed nose – yes! Yes again! Incisive, wide, concentrated and detailed. A great Chenevottes!
Only 2 metres away but such a difference…
Also plenty of aromatic scale here – open, pure – extra floral. Vibrant – ooh great. Mouth-watering, growing more intense. Some oak in the complexity – but not too much. Slowly, vibrantly fading before becoming more haunting. A wine with everything.
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.
A deeply vibrant nose but with comfort attached too and slowly becoming more airy. Crystalline, finesse of texture. Back to the vibrancy in the middle and finishing flavour. Yes!
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.
2020 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Champsgains
Less deep but still a fine width of detailed aroma. There is structure and more muscle here – a density to this pure flavour – but all with fine proportion – clarity again. Simply excellent wine with already a great finish.
2020 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Baudines
Here the aromas are a little more vertical – a freshness, a marzipan note! Structured and muscled like the last but equally airy – finishing with a bit more saline intensity – great finishing!
Chalky, floral – that’s a super aromatic combination. A cascade of flavour here – so mouth-watering, mineral, properly structured and impressively delicious so young. Bravo! The finish has more density to unfurl today – a wine with everything
A nose that starts small then never stops growing – fabulously. Wider than the Caillerets but equally mouth-watering. The style of intensity is different, touched with a little more comfort – density in the finish like the Caillerets but with a more contemplative style – equally pure and detailed – what a great pair to compare and contrast over the coming years.
From vines within Vergers that were planted in 1910 – 40 ouvrées, actually the climat is Pitangeret.
A fuller nose – rounder but active, with a touch of textural fat. More intense but wider, a few mm of cushioning as suggested by the nose. The oak a little more visible in this concentrated finish – but give it 2 years and you will be happy!
2020 Corton Les Chevaliers Blanc
A little narrower and more obviously saline. Intense and vibrant, supple and concentrated – not the chalky style of most Charlemagne. Really an attractive and approachable grand cru – with lots of concentration and balance – Super!
2020 Chevalier-Montrachet
Just above the cabotte of Bouchard.
This nose a little narrower but with a lovely vibration in the depth. Mouth-filling, more airy in style after the Corton – open, detailed, fluid flavour – then a crackle of intensity over the palate before it slowly fades, mineral-style, in the finish – very slowly fades! Classy wine!
Les Reds:
A rare domaine in Chassagne – these days – that produces half red, and in this vintage there’s a little less red than white:
2020 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Les Grands Terres
Intense dark-red fruit – impressive. This is open and has more energy than I expect given the fruit – it’s pure but also has the impression of dried cranberries! Delicious and different and very floral finishing too!
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.
Like the last, fully open and showing a purity of fruit, again with a cranberry accent to the super pinot fruit. Extra concentrated and composed over the palate – maybe I’d like a bit more energy – it’s marginal – but the purity and width are simply great for the label. Bravo
The parcel touches Chassagne, Claude Buzard and Pierre-Yves Colin also have vines here.
A more open and airy nose – much width to this – faintly spiced too. Open, mobile, finely textured, growing in intensity but never sharp. That’s a great Santeneay. More open and mouth-watering finishing than the last – also great and no overt tannin in either of these properly constructed wines.
2020 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Macherelles
The domaine has a little white here too – but there’s more red.
A little less open, the width of fruit with more concentration but nothing ‘dense.’ Deeper, more complex, beautiful open style – love! A great finish – vibrant, deep, mineral and with dark, pure fruit too.
2020 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot
More open, redder fruit with some floral aspects too. Direct, pure, growing in depth of flavour. Super wine – I slightly prefer the middle and finish of the previous wine – but this is a beauty too!
2020 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos St.Jean
A wider nose of more complexity but less direct focus because of that – nice anyway. Mouth-filling and vibrant – a more open complexity that reflects the nose. Completely delicious and really attractive finishing too. Different to the others – as it should be. Excellent wine!
There is one response to “Jean-Marc Pillot – 2020”
Bill, happy holidays to you. Quick question- are the Callierets and Champsgains really 2019s or are they 2020s like the others reviewed? Let me know. Thanks.