Chassagne-Montrachet Houillères, Olivier Leflaive 2022
James Suckling 94
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Why this wine
Sixty-five-year-old vines in a parcel that borders Puligny, made by one of the most dependable white-wine cellars in the Côte de Beaune. Barrel-fermented for texture but finished in steel, so the tension stays intact. A clear step up from generic Chassagne without reaching Premier Cru money.
At a glance
- Grape
- Chardonnay
- Region
- Burgundy, France
- Alcohol
- 13.50%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- High
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Medium (5-10 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Seafood, Poultry & Pork, Cheese
How it tastes
Green apple and citrus, fresh and tangy, with toasty oak sitting lightly behind the fruit rather than over it. Medium-bodied and taut, high in acidity, finishing stony. Chardonnay 100%.
The producer
Olivier Leflaive set up on his own in 1984 and grew the domaine to seventeen hectares; it works as both grower and négociant, blending its own parcels with fruit bought from around a hundred of the Côte d'Or's finest growers, with Franck Grux in the cellar. Houillères is a village parcel in the north of Chassagne-Montrachet, on the Puligny border, planted in 1952 on calcareous clay at 230 to 250 metres; the vines now average sixty-five years and the damper soil here carries them through warm summers. Harvested entirely by hand and vinified as whole bunches, the must settled for a day before fermentation and malolactic conversion in French oak, then twelve months in barrel with a fifth of them new, and six months in stainless steel to hold the freshness. 2022 was hot, dry and early, with July and August among the hottest of the last thirty years, and the fruit came in ripe and healthy.
Food and drinking
Serve at 11–13°C. Grilled sea bass, chicken with tarragon, roast pork loin, or a young goat's cheese. Drinking well now and will hold five to ten years. Sealed with a DIAM cork.