Grand Cru wines of Chassagne-Montrachet, Côte-de-Beaune, Burgundy, France

October 1, 2010

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The Burgundian village of Chassagne-Montrachet is home to some of the world’s most respected white wines, the best of which are made from the three Grand Cru vineyards to which it has a claim; Le Montrachet, Batard-Montrachet and Criots-Batard-Montrachet.

Chassagne shares the Le Montrachet and Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru vineyards, also known as climats, with its northern neighbor Puligny-Montrachet. The commune boundary divides these two prestigious vineyard sites roughly down the middle, the northern half being in Puligny, the southern half being in Chassagne. The Criots-Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru site lies entirely within Chassagne’s boundaries. At only 4 acres (1.6 hectares), Criots-Batard-Montrachet is significantly smaller than its neighbors, and produces only a small quantity of its rare wine every vintage. The Le Montrachet covers 20 acres (8 hectares), while Batard covers some 27 acres (11 hectares) – five times larger than Criots, but still not particularly large sites.

These three Grand Cru sites, as is the case for their immediate neighbors Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet, are reserved exclusively for Chardonnay vines, as their respective appellation laws cover only the production of dry white wines. While Pinot Blanc is tolerated to a certain degree in other local white wine appellations, wines from these Grand Cru sites must be pure Chardonnay.

Criots-Batard-Montrachet is located at the foot of the Cote d’Or slopes, at an altitude of around 780ft (240m) – slightly lower than Chevalier-Montrachet and Le Montrachet. Consequently, the brown limestone soils here are slightly deeper than further up the slopes, and have a higher proportion of clay. These subtle differences, when combined with specific vineyard mesoclimates and orientation are the essential components of terroir – a concept which is of the utmost importance to Burgundy’s winemaking community.

There is no “Chassagne-Montrachet Grand Cru” appellation per se – the prestige is reserved entirely for the Grand Cru vineyard site itself, irrespective of which commune or communes it happens to cross into. Grand Cru wines made within Chassagne-Montrachet are labeled with their own specific Grand Cru name, and are not required to mention the Chassagne-Montrachet name.

Source: http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-chassagne-montrachet+grand+cru

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