Description
Jean-Marc Pillot, Saint-Romain “La Périère”
Here it is: the most perennially impressive wine from the Côte de Beaune village of Saint-Romain. Not surprisingly, it comes from Jean-Marc Pillot, one of the most consistently brilliant, in-demand producers of classic white Burgundy. As we’ve learned over the years, Pillot doesn’t miss the mark, ever, and those steady bullseyes have finally caught up with the broader market: His wines are fetching all-time high prices but, fortunately, our early support still affords us unfettered access to one of our favorite “secret” values: “La Périère.”
In my line of work, there are few experiences more riveting than when an already high-performing cuvée is graced with a brilliant and universally beloved vintage. Pillot’s 2017 Saint-Romain delivers a degree of depth seldom found in white Burgundy at this price, and at four years old, I can tell you with certainty that something special has happened to this bottle. It has blossomed into a luxurious, complex, 100% convincing Puligny-Montrachet clone. Opportunities to experience power, elegance, and expressiveness à la top Premier Cru Burgundy around $50 are few and far between. I’m stocking up and I encourage you to do the same—it delivers on every level!
Jean-Marc Pillot is the fourth consecutive generation of his family involved in winemaking. He began apprenticing directly beneath his father, Jean, over three decades ago. By 1991, he had assumed leadership of the family property with the assistance of his wife, Nadine, and sister, Beatrice. With an impressive diversity of Premier and Grand Cru parcels in Chassagne- and Puligny-Montrachet, Jean-Marc Pillot is one of the highest-achieving white Burgundy producers we feature on SommSelect. His whites offer succulent and bold fruit that is always expertly balanced with deep, mineral terroir of limestone and clay. But the one frustrating hitch is that they do not come cheap—and they only become more challenging to acquire with each passing vintage. In our first year of business, we offered multiple back vintages and new releases of Pillot’s top whites. Today, with the ongoing deluge of critical praise and industry enthusiasm for Pillot’s elite cuvées, the flow of these wines into the country has all but dried up.
However, if you know where to look, some can still be had without breaking the bank, like today’s top Saint-Romain bottling from a cooler-climate vineyard a few miles west of Meursault. This is one of just a few exceptionally limited cuvées outside of Puligny and Chassagne that Jean-Marc exports to the US, and it can go head-to-head with them for half the price! With fewer than 125 cases produced, this is an equally rare and outstanding value.
Rich in limestone, “La Périère” is renowned for its extraordinarily expressive Chardonnay, and after tasting this bottle, my hunch is that Jean-Marc recognizes this vineyard’s capacity to produce wine that is heads above what generally comes out of Saint-Romain. The Pillot family hand-harvested their fruit for this wine in late September 2017. Fermentation proceeded in a 70/30 mix of stainless steel and oak barrels. Afterward, the wine aged on its fine lees for a year before being racked and allowed to rest for several more months. Pillot does not filter or cold stabilize, so his wines always retain a particular vividness and dimension that is impossible to counterfeit. While always approachable and generous in character, these are authentic wines that express their terroir of origin with clarity.
Jean-Marc Pillot’s 2017 Saint-Romain “La Périère” might as well say “Puligny-Montrachet” on the label: It looks like Puligny, smells like Puligny, and sure tastes like Puligny. Bright yellow apple and Asian pear fruit are accented by white flowers, lime zest, wet stone, and raw hazelnut. There’s so much subtle power, yet such impressive nuance—a remarkable achievement for a wine as modestly priced as this. This wine promises to improve in the cellar for another 3-5 years, still, I can promise that it is absolutely gorgeous today. After my recent experience, I encourage you to decant this wine for 60 minutes before enjoying in oversized Burgundy stems. The contents of this bottle continued to develop into day two after the cork was pulled, so be sure to save a glass or more after its first night. Cheers!
