Perhaps you’ve heard the term “unicorn wine” used to describe bottlings that are so rare that they are essentially mythical. I’m not sure this Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru from Jean-Marc Morey qualifies as a unicorn, but I’d give it half a horn at a minimum; the entire Bâtard-Montrachet vineyard totals just 12 hectares spread among a multitude of owners, most of whom make just a few barrels from the site.
As our Burgundy-loving subscribers know, Jean-Marc Morey is one of those “top-to-bottom” producers for us—as in, we enthusiastically offer his wines at every level in his range. Based in Chassagne-Montrachet and known above all for pristine, textured, finely tuned expressions of Chassagne-grown Chardonnay, Morey dazzled us a few months back with a succulent 2014 Chassagne from his “La Bergerie” vineyard, but this wine is another level entirely. As in, the absolute top level.
As Burgundy lovers are aware, the ‘Morey’ surname is well-dispersed in the Côte de Beaune. Jean-Marc Morey is the son of Albert Morey, one of the earliest producers in Chassagne to bottle his own wines. When Albert retired in 1981, he split up his vineyard holdings between his two sons, Jean-Marc and Bernard, who took the somewhat unusual step of keeping vineyard parcels whole (rather than each having half of every one). Jean-Marc ended up with an excellent array of sites, including pieces of great Chassagne Premier Crus such as “Champs Gains,” “Chaumées,” and “Chenevottes.” Overall, the Jean-Marc Morey holdings encompass 9 hectares, most of them in Chassagne-Montrachet but extending to Santenay, Saint-Aubin, and Beaune as well.
Morey’s parcel of Bâtard-Montrachet is on the “Chassagne side” of the vineyard, which, like the Grand Cru “Le Montrachet” just upslope from it, straddles the villages of Chassagne and Puligny. The legend of its naming is a great one: In the middle ages, the “Lord” of Puligny divided his vineyard holdings on the “Montrachet” hillside among his sons, the chevaliers (“knights”), his daughters, the pucelles (“maids”), and even his illegitimate son, the bâtard (“bastard”). The Bâtard-Montrachet vineyard sits at the lowest level of the Grand Cru slope and has a higher concentration of clay mixed with limestone in the soils, lending its wines an extra layer of richness in comparison to, say, the more knife’s-edge wines of Chevalier-Montrachet, which sits much higher on the slope.
Jean-Marc Morey is known for working very traditionally in both the vineyards and cellar, and favors relatively short maturation times in wood for his white wines—and never more than 25% new barrels used for aging, which typically lasts just under a year before bottling. As I’ve noted before, 2014 is an extremely generous, yet balanced, white wine vintage in Burgundy, and Morey’s 2014 Bâtard-Montrachet is, predictably, an absolute knockout. Its deep, reflective, yellow-gold hue extends all the way to the rim, and its aromatics are an explosive mix of ripe yellow apple, white peach, pear, wild flowers, crème fraiche, raw hazelnut, white truffle, wet stones, and a subtle hint of delicate oak spice. For all of its palate-coating viscosity, there isn’t the slightest suggestion of flabbiness—that’d never happen with Jean-Marc Morey, whose whites always have a firm mineral underpinning and a floral lilt, even at the richer end of the spectrum. I anticipate this wine aging 10-20 years more with ease, and yet I’m so tempted to drink one now. If you are likewise tempted, decant it at least an hour before serving at 55-60 degrees in large Burgundy bowls. This is the kind of shimmering, sexy white Burgundy that demands a luxury-level piece of seafood, maybe some hefty prawns or a rich, pristine fillet of turbot. The attached recipe is the kind of decadent preparation I have in mind here, because, with a wine this rare, every sip has to count. Enjoy!
