A battle in the heart of Burgundy: Puligny vs Meursault vs Chassagne

Cool temperatures and the very beginning of fall was perfect for our blind tasting of the night: the 3 most prestigious communes for whites in the Cote de Beaune: Puligny-Montrachet / Meursault / Chassagne Montrachet.

Driving from Beaune, you are going to hit Meursault first then Puligny to finish with Chassagne, the southernmost communes of the 3.

With the fear of having many oxidized bottles, we started the tasting (all blind).

1st Flight


2008 Chartron et Trébuchet Puligny-Montrachet
Very lemony with a hint of oak and minerality. Austere. It lacks energy on the palate.
Simple. Not bad but at $50, ouch !

2001 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets
More powerful than the previous wine. Nutty and smoky with a hint of mango. Round, spicy and apple. While well made and with decent complexity, it lacks depth.
Disappointing. And I thought it was a Chassagne...

2001 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les
Premox. What should have been a gem was showing signs of premox....and was pretty much undrinkable.

2nd Flight

2000 Domaine Rémi Jobard Meursault 1er Cru Le Poruzot
Some exotic fruit on the nose (pineapple), pear and citrus. Nice grillé. Palate is a little soft and almost lactic.
Not bad but quite straight forward. This specific bottle will not last very long.


2006 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Boudriotte
Grillé noble with a hint of minerality. Well balanced. This is quite Meursault like in character.
Round and orchard fruits. Powerful. The finish is not totally focused but this wine was my favorite of the tasting.
Nice.

1998 Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières
Corked. 2nd flawed bottle of the night.




This rather small sample was interesting to taste even though there were, in my opinion, no really outstanding wines. The fact that the Ramonet and Boillot were flawed surely did not help.

Funny to see that the Fontaine-Gagnard wine was among the favorite of the night even though the Boudriotte terroir is more famous for the red Chassagne. Nevertheless this was a nice wine. I would love to do another round with more wines, especially Puligny which is my favorite of the 3.

Nice to see that all the wines were showing a sense of place and were definitely Burgundian.