La Romanee Chassagne Montrachet, Domaine Paul Pillot 2019 (OCC 3)

Description

By Wine Advocate in 2021 (WA94-96)

The 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Romanée was showing beautifully, a touch of reduction dissipating in the glass, revealing notes of freshly baked bread, beeswax and nutmeg mingled with Anjour pear, preserved citrus, fresh melon and iodine. Medium to full-bodied, deep and tightly wound, with fine concentration, racy acids and a long, penetrating finish, this is broad-shouldered but tensile, auguring very well for its future evolution. Like many of his neighbors on the Côte de Beaune, Thierry Pillot—who has directed this Chassagne-Montrachet domaine since 2004—reported low yields in 2019, noting that they were fully 50% below average. He began picking early, he told me, but after a press load or two, he decided he’d begun prematurely and paused, waiting for more complete physiological maturity. Given the inherent richness of the vintage, he opted to use no new oak. But since percentages of new wood are invariably modest, with plenty of larger-format 350-liter barrels, and the lees are never stirred, this does not represent much of a departure from the house style. Revisiting some of the estate’s 2018s, I was delighted to find that they had fulfilled all the promise they showed in barrel. The 2019s, more concentrated and structured, are even more impressive. As I’ve written before, Pillot is one of a handful of exciting producers who win Chassagne-Montrachet the title of the Côte de Beaune’s most dynamic white wine-producing village today.

By Decanter in 2020 (D95)

From a parcel planted at the very top of the slope in thin soils by Thierry’s grandfather more than 70 years ago. This was fermented and aged in large oak (about 10% new) to produce a wine of prodigious concentration, with a concentrated citrus aroma and firm, flinty minerality on the nose that opens magically on the palate to show unexpected richness and density. Superb. Drinking Window 2024 – 2039.