Blain-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet Clos Saint Jean Blanc 1er Cru 2019

Like many growers in the villages of the Côte d'Or, Claudine Blain has the history and traditions of Burgundy in her veins: She is the daughter of Jacques and Josèphe Gagnard and the granddaughter of Edmond Delagrange, and her family maintains the well-established Gagnard-Delagrange property. Claudine and her husband, Jean-Marc Blain, manage the Blain-Gagnard estate. Thirty-five percent of the estate's wine is sold to négociants. The rest of the white wine is put in Alliers oak (about one-third new) and bottled after 14-16 months in a cask. The red wines use the same percentage of new oak but age in a cask for 18 months before bottling. Blain believes in mixing wines from vines of different ages to capture the fruit of the younger vines as well as the richness of the older vines. Concentrated, low-yield wines in limited production. Essential burgundies for those who like rich but subtle wines.

Clos Saint-Jean is a Premier Cru vineyard located on the hillside above the streets and houses of Chassagne-Montrachet village. It is planted in both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, making high-quality examples of both. It is the Clos Saint-Jean Premier Cru red wines that are of particular note, displaying rich, ripe characters despite their often lighter colour.

The individual Clos Saint-Jean lieu-dit covers a little over five hectares (12.3 acres) of east-facing Côte d'Or midslope, but the wider site is considered to include Chassagne du Clos Saint-Jean (2 hectares/5 acres) along the same slope to the south, with Les Rebichets (5.4 hectares/13 acres) and Les Murées (1.6 hectares/4 acres) below.