2017 Chassagne Montrachet Les Caillerets

One new barrel out of three, as Chenevottes. Vines from his father. Extreme west of the premier cru and high up. Racked and back to barrel in August. Will spend several months in tank before bottling in May. Firmly textured, a hint of struck match on the palate. A light and inviting note of smoky reduction – typical of this premier cru – likely to reduce in barrel. Deep green fruits with richness and volume in the mouth but tightened up by that mineral smokiness and just a hint of sweet toast. Comes in tight and incredibly long on the finish. Goes on for ever. Complete wine. (JH)

Bright medium yellow-green. Alluring scents of lemon drop, caraway seed, pungent crushed rock and spices. Wonderfully fine-grained and slightly glyceral, with its flavors of lemon zest, anise and crushed rock conveying terrific mineral-driven definition and purity. Turns more austere on the very long, slowly mounting, white-peppery whiplash of a finish. A potentially great, elegant example of an outstanding terroir . Colin has three 350-liter barrels of this juice, one of them new--or about 42 hectoliters per hectare. He told me that this wine "was nothing at the beginning: both oxidized and reduced at the same time."