Whisper “Montrachet” in the ear of any French wine aficionado and you’ll almost certainly see a knowing, longing smile emerge. That’s because this name is virtually synonymous with the world’s very best Chardonnay, nay the world’s best white wine, period. Of course, if we’re talking specifically about the Grand Cru “Le Montrachet,” then that smile may turn upside down when the bill comes due, as these wines are easily into the four digits per bottle now. But don’t despair! We have the answer: Less than a mile away, the maestro of Chassagne, Jean-Marc Pillot, organically farms small plots of pristine Chardonnay that produce a wine with all the exquisite balance and mineral majesty of the granddaddy up the road. And you get it all for under $100! The holidays are upon us, it is time for top notch white Burgundy!
Pillot’s wines balance impressive soil character and electric minerality with vivid, pure fruit. They epitomize the Chassagne-Montrachet terroir while offering remarkable approachability in their youth and impressive complexity and evolution after even modest cellar aging. This is true year in and year out, and the 2022 vintage is proving that in spades. Warm and sunny, it received just enough rain and breaks in the heat spells to produce generous wines that also have excellent snap from good acidity. We love these wines, our customers love these wines, and the only challenge with Pillot is summoning the willpower to sell our meager allocation each vintage instead of shuttling it into our personal cellars. Honestly, if we had to list one (affordable) producer that epitomized the unending charm of Chassagne, it’d probably be Jean-Marc Pillot.
Jean-Marc Pillot is the fourth consecutive generation of his family to be involved in winemaking. He began apprenticing directly beneath his father, Jean, in 1985. By 1991, he had assumed leadership of the family property, though he was assisted in numerous regards by his wife, Nadine, and sister, Beatrice. Today Jean-Marc’s son, Antonin, is taking an increasingly larger role in the cellar and the vines.Pillot owns and farms a broad range of vineyards in the villages of Santenay, Puligny, Meursault, Montigny, and Remigny. Still, there is little-to-no debate that the family’s finest wines originate from their Chassagne-Montrachet holdings. This is their specialty.
Today’s wine hails from six small parcels that are scattered throughout the village. The vines very in age, with some as old as 75 years, and everything is farmed organically. Back at the winery, the Pillot family spontaneously ferments their pristing Chardonnay in mostly used French oak barrels where it spends a year on its fine lees. Following, the wine is racked into stainless steel tanks to rest and “tighten up” for an additional six months.
This patient, time-consuming approach means Pillot does not need to filter or cold-stabilize his whites, so they always retain a certain vividness and dimension that is missing from many higher-priced neighbors’ wines. The wine is rich and filling yet incredibly tense and laser-like in its approach. This is the appeal of top Chassagne—it’s ability to dance atop a piano wire with incredible depth and density. What’s more, the accessibility, or ‘openness’ of the wine is always what gives Pillot its distinction: As long as it’s properly served, this provides every luscious fruit (salted lemon peel, lime, white peach, yellow apple, pineapple core) and tension-filled minerality/savoriness (crushed rock, sea shell, limestone, wildflowers, baking spice) that comes with the best white Burgundy, whether enjoying now or in 10+ years! If doing the former, which is perfectly acceptable, serve in your largest Burgundy stems around 55 degrees after a long decant of one to two hours. Savor slowly, and enjoy—this is the gateway “drug” to the best white Burgundy has to offer!
