2017 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

Michel Coutoux, who manages this estate for his father-in-law Michel Niellon and shares winemaking and vineyard duties, described 2017 as "a big breath of oxygen after all the difficulties in 2016." The estate "made the limit" across the board, as its vineyards snapped back after the disastrous frost of 2016. Still, said Coutoux, the volumes were not excessive and the wines are "flattering and nicely balanced, with good fruit." He noted that acidity levels in the grapes fell during the heat of late August, with east- and southeast-facing vines on shallow soil more likely to suffer from a blockage of maturity, but that conditions were much more benign during the first week of September (the estate started harvesting on September 3). He also told me that Pinot Noir was changed more by the end-of-August rainfall as the Chardonnay berries affected by hydric stress did not swell as quickly.

Incidentally, back when Niellon made his wine in two tiny, cramped cellars under his house in the center of Chassagne-Montrachet, the end of the sugar fermentations could be tricky, as they took place in metal tanks. But in his new temperature-controlled facility on the south side of town, he's able to move the wines into barrels in the middle of the fermentations, giving them a dose of oxygen that helps finish the alcohols.