The wine comes from a gently sloping 0.36ha (under one acre) plot on the Chassagne side, just below Montrachet, with excellent exposure to the south and south-east. The grapes are hand-picked and sorted, then gently pressed and settled for 24-48 hours. Fermentation takes place naturally in barrels at cellar temperature (18°C) and maturation continues in underground cellars at 10-12°C. The wine ages on lees in 228-litre Tronçais and Allier oak, 80% new, for a total of 18 months. The final blend is made from barrels selected after the final racking. The wine is lightly filtered and bottled at the Domaine.
Caroline Lestimé has enhanced the reputation of this fine producer since taking over from her famous father, Jean Noel Gagnard, in 1989.
Jean Noel Gagnard handed his eponymous Domaine to his daughter Caroline Lestimé in 1989. She had studied business in Paris, before returning to the village to take over the reins of the family estate, and had to handle male chauvinism at its most rampant. Nonetheless, she has followed her own convictions, and enhanced (rather than diminished) the reputation of this fine producer. In the vineyard, she uses no fertilisers or herbicides, but has not taken hold of the biodynamic bible. - James Halliday
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A notably ripe and ever-so-mildly exotic but not really surmature nose consists primarily of spicy white orchard fruit along with hints of wood, white flowers and viognier. The rich, opulent and vibrant broad-shouldered flavors possess lovely complexity while delivering excellent length on the powerful and focused if somewhat linear finish. This will almost certainly add body with age, and it appears to be structured for mid to even longer-term cellaring.
93 points, Burghound.com (June 2020)
Clear bright and pale, this will avoid the top heavy aspect that can befall Bâtard. Rich certainly, with plenty of oak, a wealth of fresh yellow fruit behind, and a very long finish. Worth taking time over, an explosion of summer flowers at the back, really impressive potential here.
(94-97) points, InsideBurgundy.com (December 2019)
This was the last wine I tasted on my three-week Burgundy tour and it was a great way to finish. Sourced from a 0.33ha block of 60-year-old vines on the Chassagne side of the Grand Cru, it's consistently the most patrician wine in Caroline Lestimé's range. Spicy, structured and stylishy oaked in 60% new barrels, it's powerful yet fresh with wonderful energy.
96 points, Decanter (October 2019)
Their colour is gold flecked with emerald, darkening towards yellow with age. Their bouquet evokes butter and warm croissants, bracken, dried fruit, spices and honey. Body and bouquet are not separately distinguishable, so closely blended are structure and harmony into a single perfect whole. Unctuous and firm, dry and caressing, enveloped and profound, these wines combine every virtue in a firmly-established personality.
