Who doesn’t love a sure thing? Sure, it’s an exhilarating, if not nerve-racking, ride to put your money on a longshot in the hopes of a huge payoff, but it’s impossible to pass up a guaranteed return. Today’s wine comes about as close to a lock as you will find in today’s wine world: a famous Premier Cru Chassagne-Montrachet from (1) a pedigreed producer, (2) a near-flawless vintage, and (3) a price that can’t be matched.
Really, the deck is so heavily stacked here that it borders on cheating. But this Chassagne-Montrachet is more than just a pretty label and an impressive CV—it’s one of the most impressive white Burgundies we’ve tasted this year. While we had every reason to believe this wine was going to be delicious, it still blew us away upon tasting. Swirling with white flowers and chalk on the nose, the wine fills your palate with sweeping textures that are counterbalanced with intense mineral length. Our tastings at SommSelect are so wide-ranging, covering the entire world and spanning every imaginable price point, so I say the following without hesitation: There’s a reason great white Burgundy costs what it does, and why people fight over the limited allocations of elite wines like this one. It’s simply on another level. Obviously, we secured as much as we could—you should do the same, which in this case is six bottles per person until our stock disappears.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Chassagne-Montrachet. Stylistically, the white wines from Chassagne occupy a middle ground between those of Puligny and Meursault, containing less floral pixie dust than the former and more grace than the latter. There is perhaps no better example of the brilliant potential of Chassagne than the Premier Cru “Les Caillerets.” The name is a direct reference to the vineyard’s stony soils, a riff on caille, old French for rock (one of hundreds of words the French have for stones). There are numerous sites with the name of Caillerets amongst the different villages of Burgundy, all with similar characteristics—steep, rocky, and well-drained—with Chassagne’s being no exception. The pebbly marl and chunks of limestone that sit at top of the slope give the wines made from the vineyard a lithe, lacy structure and aromatic finesse. The mineral structure provided by the vineyard mesh perfectly with the winemaking style of Domaine Guy Amiot.
The Amiots’ parcel of Caillerets is two-thirds of a hectare and comprises mainly 70-year-old vines (with a small portion re-planted 30 years ago). Arsene Amiot acquired the parcel in the 1920s along with a small assortment of other impressive Premier Cru vineyards. Soon they began bottling wines under their own label, becoming one of the first estates in Burgundy to do so. The estate gradually grew over the years to a total of 10 hectares and is currently run by Arsene’s great grandson Thierry, who is devoted to maintaining the domaine’s impeccable track record and continuing the traditions of his father, Guy.
The 2017 growing season has been described by some Burgundian winemakers as boring, with its idyllic weather, good crop size, and problem-free growing season. In other words, a near perfect vintage. The result for Guy Amiot was a harvest of impeccable grapes that came into the winery in pristine condition. Upon arrival, they were then crushed and fermented in barrels (30% new). The wine was subsequently aged 12 months in barrel before being transferred back to one tank for six months before bottling. To fully showcase the nose of this wine, I recommend using Burgundy stems to enjoy the notes of lemon butter, brioche, créme fraîche, almond skin and white smoke. On the palate the texture is silky to start, with Meyer lemon oil, white peach and pear but finishes with crunchy lemon zest and white pepper. While the wine is friendly and approachable now, there is no doubt that it will get even better after 3-5 years, but I’ll bet it will last at least 10 years. I recommend getting a few bottles to see how this wine develops over time. If you can’t wait and need to pop a bottle immediately, do yourself a favor and drink it with a simple roast chicken with herbs and lemon. You won’t be sorry. Cheers!
