MEURSAULT

2017 1er Cru Caillerets Domaine Fernand & Laurent Pillot

EN PRIMEUR

The creaminess is evident on the nose. Clearly Meursault. The palate reveals precise, pure fruit, a touch of mineral tension but all wound up in a smooth, creamy, textured juice. Immediately appealing, this will give drinking pleasure for the next seven years. L&S (Oct 2018)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

Light lemon aroma, but more open on the palate. There is plenty of fruit on the attack. Good ripeness and richness, but quite straight, not too full and with a firm minerality coming through on the finish. I like the grip at the end of the palate. This balance is made with the minerality. I would wait a year or two and drink over the medium term 5 to 8 years. Laurent: “I am happy with the tension we have in the 2017. They are linear and have good maturity. It was not important to have yields. A nice white vintage” Adrien: “I think it will age very well. Even in a warm vintage we can make really tight wine and we like the tightness on the white wine.” Rating: 17.6 Sarah Marsh MW, The Burgundy Briefing (Nov 2019)

A moderately exotic nose displays notes of pineapple, melon, lychee and lemongrass. The sleeker and more fine delineated if less powerful medium weight flavors exude a fine bead of minerality on the succulent, dry and sneaky long finish. This needs to develop a bit more depth but the underlying material appears to be present such that should reasonably occur. Drinking range: 2023 - Rating: 91 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Jun 2019)

The 2017 Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets is lovely, wafting from the glass with aromas of confit citrus, lemon oil, buttered apples and pastry cream. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, satiny and gourmand, with a textural attack that segues into a fleshy mid-palate and saline, mineral finish. A warm but stony site, this is typically among the domaine's earliest-harvested parcels. Drinking range: 2018 - 2028 Rating: 91 William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (Jan 2019)

Intense nose. Great freshness on the palate. Nicely splits the difference between anorexic and fat Meursault with impressive persistence denoting longevity. Drinking range: 2019 - 2029 Rating: 17 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Jan 2019)

The 2017 Meursault Les Caillerets 1er Cru is one of the best cuvées I tasted from Pillot. It is fresh and crisp on the nose of red apple, smoke and light gravelly scents. The palate is fresh on the entry with a slight bitterness, perhaps even a very discreet flor-like aroma that I find attractive. It builds in the mouth toward a poised but quite powerful finish. Very fine. Drinking range: 2021 - 2030 Rating: 91 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jan 2019)

The origins of the Pillot family in Chassagne can be traced back to the eighteenth century, when they seem to have been coopers more than vignerons. In the nineteenth century they abandoned barrel-making in favour of enlarging the property in Chassagne. Fernand and Laurent, who is the fourth generation, added to it again in 1992, and then in 2001 Laurent's wife Marie-Anne inherited half of her family's property, the Pommard domaine of Pothier-Rieusset, and Laurent and his father bought the other half. The domaine now stands at 14.5 hectares of vines across almost the whole length of the Côte de Beaune from Santenay to Beaune.

The Domaine is worked according to organic principles and are ploughed – no chemical weedkillers are used. They have also been members of the Dephy-ECO-phyto group, which works to reduce the number of treatments using copper sulphate, since 2012. In 2021 they began the process of organic certification.

Laurent has always managed to pack in a lot alongside his running of the vineyard. He has his own plane which he flies to all corners of France, used keep and hunts hawks, and conducts the Chassagne brass band as well as dabbling in Mayoral duties - on top of being a father of three, Anaïs, Adrien and Eugène. They are all mad about the alps and disappear up the mountains at regular intervals.

Laurent's eldest son Adrien has been travelling the world making wine all over the place for the last few years having completed his training in Beaune. Bringing back lessons learnt in Australia, South Africa and California (and from a stint at Lea & Sandeman), During harvest Adrien is now the one in the winery while Laurent takes charge of the picking team. The wines have long been L&S favourites in both red and white - they represent excellent value, and they age very well too, despite being attractive young. The whites are precise and pure, and not lacking for body and generosity, while the reds are velvety and juicy, beautifully balanced even if drunk young on their expressive Pinot fruit. The domaine was rightfully heralded in Decanter Magazine as 'an address that deserves to be better-known'. Great value and real pleasure across their range.

Read more about Adrien here in this recent Forbes article here.

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