Wine Advisor
Blain Gagnard, Chassagne Montrachet Blanc 2019
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Description
About the Producer
Domaine Blain-Gagnard, located in the village of Chassagne-Montrachet in the Cote de Beaune in Burgundy, France, is an iconic winery with a worldwide reputation for its white wines. Château Branagarde was founded in 1980 by Jean Marc Blain and Claudine Gagnard. The winery's foundation is closely linked to their marriage and is an example of a family-owned Burgundy winery passed down from generation to generation. The estate was partly a gift from Collotin's grandparents and partly inherited from Collotin's father, Jacque Gagnard. Today, the couple's son, Marc-Antonin, has returned from a study trip to the wine regions of Australia and New Zealand to help them with the day-to-day running of the winery. The terroir of the Brancagalde vineyard is very privileged and includes two Grand Crus, Batard Montrachet and Criots-Batard-Montrachet, among other first growths. Batard-Montrachet is located on the south side of the hill, with plenty of sunshine, which is ideal for ripening the grapes. The low terrain of the vineyard, with its poor soil and hard limestone subsoil, encourages the vines to develop a more developed root system to absorb the minerals in the soil. However, the soil here is deeper and more fertile than in the vineyards at the top of the hill and on the hillside, ensuring a source of nutrients for the vines. The winemaker at Château Branagarde is Jean-Marc, who uses his skills in traditional Burgundian winemaking to create wines that are unique to the terroir. From the choice of barrel wood and the barrel maker to the blending of the different wines in the blend, every process is done with care and ingenuity. For the First Growths, the winery uses only 15% new oak barrels for fermentation and maturation to preserve the natural fruit flavors in the wine, while for the Grand Cru, the winery uses oak barrels from the Alliers region, with 30% new oak barrels. The wines of the estate include Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot and Clos St-Jean, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru. They are rich and concentrated, with excellent concentration and very limited production, making them very popular with consumers and critics, for example, the 2013 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru was awarded 17.5 points out of 20 by the prestigious wine magazine Decanter.
