Xavier Monnot Chassagne-Montrachet, Cote de Beaune, France

澤維爾蒙諾酒莊夏山-蒙哈榭白葡萄酒

點擊次數(shù)：2540

There are five barrels of the 2017 Chassagne-Montrachet Village, produced from a parcel planted in 1999 above the premier cru Chaumées. Revealing aromas of green orchard fruit, mandarin and wheat toast, it's medium to full-bodied, elegantly textural and succulent, with tangy acids and a pure finish.

The 2015 Chassagne-Montrachet Villages has an attractive bouquet with hints of marzipan complementing the red apple and grilled almond scents. The palate is well balanced with a fine thread of acidity, good tension and harmony with a precise, nonchalant finish that just slips down the throat. This is a pretty village cru that should bestow 5-7 years of drinking pleasure, though I would have no hesitation reaching for the waiter's friend after 12 months from bottling.

The 2012 Chassagne-Montrachet Village comes from the lieu-dit of “Les Pimonts” that lay fallow until Xavier populated it with massal selection vines. It has an uncomplicated bouquet with beeswax and dried honey and is perhaps missing some of the definition of its peers. The palate has a pretty pear drop and peach-tinged entry, imbued with moderate complexity and possesses slightly better tension on the finish compared to the Puligny-Montrachet Village. This is a commendable Chassagne village cru. I made a quick visit to Xavier Monnot’s winery, located next to his impressive grand maison tucked behind the church in the center of Meursault. The wines are branded under his own name in the United States, but elsewhere he adopts his grandfather’s title of Domaine Rene Monnier. A little like Yves Boyer-Martenot, Xavier’s present holdings have been inherited from his ancestors, with some parcels presently rented from his mother and sister, his father having passed away when he was a child. The domaine now farms around 17 hectares of vineyard in the Cote de Beaune. Xavier’s wines are well-crafted, perhaps not quite reaching the heights of its greatest exponents, but commercially savvy wines designed for mass appeal.

From young vines in a tiny parcel of the quarry-like En Pimonts vineyard, high above Les Chaumees, Monnot’s 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet displays tart, bright citrus and a not entirely integrated element of wood (one-quarter of which was new). Its Riesling-like expression of blazingly bright acidity and invigorating saturation of salinity are admirable, but this needs time to show whether it can harmonize and gain complexity and/or charm, before I would even want to address the issue of longer-term age-ability. Young Xavier Monnot – for some further notes on whom, consult issues 170 and 180 – bottled his vintage 2007 whites largely in November, 2008, and a few at 11 months. They all came in between 12.25 and 13% natural alcohol, but he did roughly a third to a half of a percent capitalization for the sake of prolonging and thus in his view improving the fermentations. They were not very charming when I tasted – 8-10 months after bottling – so I can only hope that this was a stage. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083