“Les Charmes” is the best Puligny-Montrachet vineyard you’ve never heard of. This jewel-box
lieu-dit is a well-kept secret. It hugs Puligny’s southern border, a stone’s throw from Meursault’s better-known Premier Cru of the same name.
You have to wonder, in fact, how Puligny's Les Charmes isn't classified as Premier Cru, given that it neighbors revered Puligny Premier Crus “Les Referts,” “Les Combettes,” and “Les Perrières.” It sure performs like one, happily caught between two worlds: the elegance and crystalline minerality of Puligny in conversation with the richness and roundness of Meursault. For all these reasons, each row of the vineyard is scrapped over like it’s the last source of Chardonnay in the world. Thankfully, our friend Alain Chavy has some skin in the game. Few wines from Puligny are actually made by
vignerons based in the village, but Alain is an exception to the rule. His family has cultivated and crafted Chardonnay here for well over 200 years. The noble grape runs through his blood, and the soil of Puligny is always under his nails. You can taste that noble heritage in his 2017 vintage—a hedonistic, seductive, but refined wine of incredible character which has many years ahead of it. But don’t take my word for it. Taste this wine as soon as you can; you’re going to want more.
Gérard Chavy—Alain’s father—learned viticulture from his own father after the war. He stopped selling to négociants in 1976 in favor of opening his eponymous domaine. Sons Alain and Jean-Louis worked with Gerard from 1986 to 1997, when he retired and left them his winery and vineyard holdings. In 2003 the brothers decided to divide Domaine Gerard Chavy evenly between them and each strike out on their own. They carefully separated 12 plots, including some of Puligny’s top Premier Crus. The lieu-dit (“named place”) “Les Charmes” represents a small portion of Alain Chavy’s total 17 acres. While Jean-Louis received slightly more acreage, Alain retained two-thirds of the oldest vines, planted in 1955. He purchased a grand old house in the actual village of Puligny-Montrachet and proceeded to do something that raised eyebrows among the hidebound traditionalists: Alain dug a cellar. And not just any cellar—an 18-foot deep cavern, elegantly arched and perfect for crafting his traditional wines without any refrigeration. It’s perhaps the deepest cellar in Puligny, primarily due to the fact that the water table is so high.
Alain follows the righteous path of limited intervention to produce Burgundies that smack of unadulterated authenticity. Each single grape is lovingly handpicked and double sorted before a long, slow barrel fermentation, never exceeding 25 degrees Celsius in his cellar. Alain believes in terroir first, oak second and chooses his barrel program accordingly. 20 percent of the Les Charmes fruit is aged in new, 228-liter Burgundian pièces while the rest of the crop goes into 400-liter puncheons. The flavors of Les Charmes shine clearly through this wine as a result, shaped by Alain’s signature restraint. Bâtonnage (lees-stirring) is kept to a minimum to preserve clarity and energy, while malolactic fermentations start late and are slow to complete. Wines aren’t racked before September and can be bottled as late as January, some 16 months after harvest.
Time seems to stand still in Chavy’s deep cave, but when the wine emerges, it’s worth the wait. Don’t serve this too cold: 55-60 degrees in Burgundy stems after a 60 minute decant is ideal. The wine’s initial hints of white flower unfold like origami, doubling in intensity to become seductive waves of lemon zest, hazelnut, struck match and brioche. That wonderful flinty reduction on the nose (which will dissipate with a bit of time) is slightly different to the round creaminess you find on the palate. Vivid yellow apple and white peach dominate the flavors along with wild mushroom and Puligny’s signature minerality. It’s a cerebral glass, perfectly balanced, with more density and clarity of fruit than the village-level Puligny. I’ve come to expect those characteristics from Les Charmes, and they feel particularly cohesive in the pitch-perfect 2017 vintage. This wine is showing off with its early accessibility, but remember that there is enough backbone to cellar for another 10+ years.
And when you do open that bottle, make sure there’s food at the ready. Try a beautiful piece of fish topped with slices of melted
lardo. I substituted the Pollock for Halibut in this recipe, and made use of the first winter root vegetables for a creamy parsnip purée on the side. An unforgettable wine deserves an unforgettable meal, after all.
