2017 Domaine Paul Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Les Grandes Ruchottes 1er Cru

The 2017 Chassagne-Montrachet Grandes-Ruchottes 1er Cru is taut, focused and delineated on the nose, certainly more austere than others but with fine mineralité , nearly flinty in style. The palate is built around a killer line of acidity. Very saline, very vibrant – this could only come from a limestone terroir in Burgundy. It has an almost pixelated finish. Superb. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting in Savigny-lès-Beaune.

Another of the range's high points is the 2017 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Grandes Ruchottes, a stunning wine that unfurls in the glass with a classic bouquet of pear, iodine, green apple, waxy lemon rind and wet stones. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, satiny and limpid, with a pure, elegantly textural profile, succulent acids and a long, lingering finish. Grandes Ruchottes is never the most incisive site out of the blocks, but it retains its freshness and energy with bottle age to a remarkable degree.