Description
Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot, Bourgogne Blanc “Le Haut des Champs”
For us, Jean-Marc Pillot is one of the most brilliant producers of superb, generously styled white Burgundy. As we’ve learned over the years, Pillot doesn’t miss the mark, ever, and if you’ve yet to discover why, let this brilliant 2019 Bourgogne Blanc be the launching point. We love this wine, our customers are guaranteed to love this wine, and our only challenge is summoning the willpower to sell our meager allocation instead of hoarding it all to ourselves.
Open a wine book or search any corner of the internet and you’ll find consensus: A two-mile stretch of vines in Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune is the source of the most astronomically expensive and famous Chardonnay vines on earth. We’re talking cult names like Leflaive, d’Auvenay, and Coche-Dury, whose top bottlings fetch hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands. On the surface, it would seem these hallowed grounds are strictly reserved for the top 1% but dig deeper and you’ll find a select few producers—like Jean-Marc Pillot—offering vivid insight into the high life without the high prices. That said, I’m sure you’ve noticed this isn’t one of Pillot’s elite Chassagne-Montrachet bottlings, but a “mere” Bourgogne Blanc. A Bourgogne, mind you, that’s loaded with Pillot’s signature generosity because it hails from two small parcels right below the legendary terroirs of Chassagne- and Puligny-Montrachet. So no, you won’t find any renowned vineyard decorating the label, nor a $100+ price tag, but when you can secure Chassagne quality and proximity for $39, we shout yes 10/10 times!
Pillot’s whites 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. 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 I 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. 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 two small lieux-dits that lie just below the slopes of Chassagne and Puligny. Take a car, and you could be in the world’s most punishingly expensive and famous Chardonnay vineyards in a matter of minutes. Pillot vines here are younger, around 20 years of age, yet he still employs a strict manual sorting during harvest that returns small yields. Back at the winery, Pillot spontaneously ferments this special Chardonnay in stainless steel before allowing it to mature in an equal blend of stainless and neutral French barrels for one year on fine lees. It is always bottled unfiltered.
Pillot’s traditional approach and light hand in the cellar always yields a Bourgogne that retains a special vividness and dimension that’s missing from many of his neighbors’ higher-priced wines. Each layer of this wine is soft, creamy, and filling yet a tensile backbone springloaded with freshness and acidity keeps it lively throughout. This rare ability to dance atop piano-wire tension with incredible depth and density is always the appeal of top Chassagne bottlings, and today, Pillot’s $39 Bourgogne Blanc! As long as it’s properly served in Burgundy stems around 50-55 degrees, you can expect refreshing, luscious fruit notes of yellow apple, yellow peach, Meyer lemon, lime zest, acacia, crushed stone, lees, and light baking spices. Enjoy now and over the next three years.
