Fontaine Gagnard - Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru Clos St Jean 2022 (750ml)

 
V
92

Price: $124.00

Producer Fontaine Gagnard
Country France
Region Burgundy
Varietal Chardonnay
Vintage 2022
Sku 8497
Size 750ml

Vinous: 92 Points

The 2022 Chassagne-Montrachet Clos Saint-Jean 1er Cru has more complexity on the nose than the Maltroye with touches of lemon curd white tea and crushed stone. This is open and generous without being overbearing. The palate is quintessential "Chassagne" well-balanced with ample weight. The oak is the guiding hand here less prominent than on the Maltroye with a dab of spice towards the lively finish. Very fine. - By Neal Martin on October 2023 Céline Fontaine received me at the winery in Chassagne and as usual she gave a refreshingly candid overview of the season. ?The 2022 vintage had a very good flowering with a lot of fruit and good structure of bunches. We were surprised to see so much fruit in spring. In my mind I thought that the fruit would be ripe around August 20. That was what I was aiming towards during the season. But from July the weather was too warm and too dry and this retarded the véraison which was particularly long. Rain was rare. So I decided to pick later and began on August 26 a decision I?m happy with in retrospect. When we were tasting the grapes I was very surprised about the Chardonnay berries which were like chewing gum! They did not contain much juice. The young vines suffered a lot even in Criots which does not normally suffer. So we began with the Chassagne reds and Volnay as the whites and reds had the same ripeness levels. Sugar levels rose quite quickly afterward as it was warm. Quantities were generous in whites around 50hL/ha which is my goal for Chardonnay. If we had rainfall there might have been more. The alcohol levels are around 12.5%. I was comparing the vintage to 2020 as I had exactly the same analysis of the Caillerets but in 2022 we have more malic acidity so the pH levels are higher. We had to correct just a little bit for some cuvées.? There is a shorter length of barrel maturation here so most wines have been bottled. This address has improved immensely over recent vintages each year demonstrating more and more refinement. It is a very consistent portfolio though I would single out the Chassagne La Romanée and Boudriotte as high points whilse their Bâtard-Montrachet is one of my favorites alongside the rarely seen Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet.

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