2022 Chassagne-Montrachet Blanc, Domaine Lamy-Pillot

Our links with this family go back decades, to shipping the wines of the Domaine du Duc de Magenta, for whom René Lamy was the vigneron. He then founded his own domaine in 1973, which has now passed to his daughters Karine and Florence, and their husbands Daniel and Sébastien. We are thrilled to ship from this superb 17-hectare source, with its strikingly delicious wines, both white and red. It is Florence’s highly-talented husband Sébastien Caillat who is wine-maker here, and since 2021 the story is one of renewal and positive change. Crucial fine-tunings have been made, for instance hand-picking of grapes now takes place into small baskets, then bunches are gently dropped into small wagons. This minimises the crushing of grapes before arrival at the winery. A sorting table allows elimination of any imperfect fruit. Pinot Noir grapes and bunches are lifted by gravity into vats, no longer pumped. Punching-down of reds has been reduced, only taking place during the first third of the vatting time. Gentle pumping-over has become the preferred intervention, with macerations regularly lasting 3-4 weeks.