Jean-Marc Pillot’s son joined the eponymous domaine in 2019. Nearly 12 hectares of vineyards, from Santenay to Puligny-Montrachet, 70% planted with Chardonnay and 30% with Pinot Noir, plus a small amount of purchased grapes. The result is a wide range of benchmark Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru wines. But that’s not all… Take a tour.
What is your vision?
Far from being set in stone, it’s still being refined. But the foundations are there. The ones I’ve acquired through my years of training. Starting with my internship at the Athenaeum in 2016 and 2017, when I was studying for a degree in Wine Trade and Wine Tourism at the Institut Jules Guyot. That’s when, through tasting, I started to form my own tastes and, through this, an opinion on the practices to be put in place. I’m thinking in particular of organic viticulture. Later, at Bouchard Père & Fils, I was able to appreciate the importance of terroir. Despite the standardised processes imposed by the size of this estate, its Meursault Genevrières, for example, are to die for… Another experience, in Tasmania, opened my eyes to the balance of a wine. It’s not the alcohol that gives it its fullness and persistence. A wine can be harvested early, have a low alcohol content and have real depth, like dry German Rieslings. All this, put together, has enabled me to refine my vision. As far as the whites are concerned, it’s now clear: I’m aiming to make racier, more elegant wines, with even more freshness.
What about the red wines?
It’s still a work in progress. It’s a more sensitive issue. My father is very attached to it. And I have to admit that I find it hard to decide. I’m well aware of that: when I’m tasting, I’m delighted by the finesse of a whole range of Pinot Noirs, but I’m not averse to a ‘big juice’ from time to time either. Broadly speaking, I’d like to produce red wines that are more delicate, more delicious and more drinkable when they’re younger…
What does this vision mean in terms of viticulture?
We obtained organic certification in 2024. Once again, this is the fruit of a long process. Although my father used to work with reasoned methods, he continued to use weedkillers on certain stubborn vines, for example. In 2018, we put an end to these practices. The vines breathed better and the soil became richer. Two years later, we launched our first organic trials, on our plots of Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Les Macherelles’, before working the whole estate this way the following year. A demanding approach. Organic viticulture requires vegetation to be regular, spread out and aerated. Is it this upstream work, the treatments themselves or both that are bearing fruit? I’ll tell you in 30 years’ time! In the meantime, my father and I are continuing to think about the best practices. I’m thinking in particular of palisade, which is very high for some and lower for others. I’m leaning towards an intermediate solution for the future. There’s also the question of pruning. I’m about to start a trial of cordon de royat vs guyot poussard on a small plot of 600 Chardonnay vines to be replanted…
After the vines, the harvest: when do you start?
Things are changing in this area too. I pay less and less attention to the degree of alcohol. In increasingly warm vintages, I don’t think we should hesitate to go for lower maturities than in the past. Even if it means having to chaptalise from time to time when we bring in wines at 11.5° or 11.6°. It’s not a question of going to extremes either! No, at harvest time, I’m more sensitive to the phenolic ripeness of the grapes. So I look, I taste and I supplement my observations with analyses of the degrees and acidities, this time to determine the order in which the plots should be harvested.
And what about the vinification?
To achieve the freshness and elegance we’re aiming for, I’ve made sure that I’ve extended the ageing period, used larger containers and made more use of the lees. As far as sulphur is concerned, our approach has remained fairly classic, with three nuances. Firstly, I’ve started to produce my own natural sulphur, thanks to the purchase of a shared burner. Secondly, by choosing to use indigenous yeasts for fermentation, we’ve extended the fermentation times. They last longer, produce more carbon dioxide and, as a result, require less free suphur later on. Finally, every effort is made to conserve gas: no bâtonnage, therefore, and bottling by gravity. As a result, for the whites, we end up with 35-40 mg/l of free sulphur for the 1er Crus and 30-35 mg/l for the others. That’s still quite high, of course, but the fear of wine oxidation is there…
Do you fine the wines?
Not the reds, no. And there’s no filtration on the Premier Crus. As for the whites, it’s different: they’re all fined, but the ‘small’ cuvées are not filtered. That’s where we stand to date. But here again, things are changing. Many of my winemaker colleagues, who were anti-filtration until now, are reconsidering their position. Naturally, I’m asking myself some questions too. On hot vintages, for example, a slight fining is always interesting. It helps to refine the wine, to capture the woody notes and proteins that sometimes lead to heaviness… In fact, we should no longer be systematic. You can’t deny yourself anything, and you mustn’t always try to secure everything.
Particularly as the vintage effect comes into play…
Of course it does! And not always in the way you might think. This was the case for 2024. It was a complicated year, to say the least. And yet, for the moment, the whites, in particular, are looking very good. As if stressing the vines had any virtues. And yet… Look at 2023: on the contrary, everything went very well. Too well, perhaps. From 11 to 15 January this year, at Burgundy Week in London, I was worried that I might be in for some nasty surprises. But that wasn’t the case. Chassagne-Montrachet winemakers have been working hard! A whole new generation is emerging! So much the better, because we’re in the hot seat…
What do you mean?
That’s what we’re hearing here and there. Importers are reportedly gnashing their teeth at the high price of Burgundy wines. There was even talk of Burgundy bashing last summer. What’s the best response? Keep trying to produce top-quality wines!