Vinous (90-92)

The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet La Grande Montagne 1er Cru has a fresh and vibrant nose, clearly a level up from the Village Cru this year with more mineralité and tension. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, taut and fresh with a vibrant and poised, apricot and nectarine tinged finish. This will be delicious. Closure: Diam

Vinous (92-94)

(one of the four barrels was new in 2016): Musky, noble reduction to the aromas of pear, minerals and flowers. At once thick and juicy, boasting lovely concentration and clarity to its soil-driven flavors of stone fruits and saline, rocky minerals. Tight in the middle at present but this fine-grained wine broadens out on the very long, glistening, palate-saturating back end. Leroux told me he made between 25 and 30 hectoliters per hectare from these very old vines, which he noted is the normal yield here.

Vinous (91-93)

The 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeots 1er Cru has a terse bouquet, certainly one of the most austere and Puligny-like from Alex Moreau this year. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, taut and fresh, steely and focused with wonderful sapidity towards the finish. Excellent.

Wine Anorak (93)

North part of Chassagne, they have 2 hectares. Rocky soil with lots of limestone. Linear, bright and mineral with a citrus fruit core and a bit of spicy oak. There’s a tiny hint of bitterness under the fruit. Has a bit of pineapple and pear richness, too, and some hazelnut. Lovely focus.

Vinous (94)

The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet La Boudriotte 1er Cru is very floral on the nose with pressed white flowers, honeysuckle and broom, touches of chalk and apricot. The palate is well balanced with fine acidity, more density than the La Grande Montagne, impressive weight and salinity that gets the saliva flowing on the finish. Excellent.

Vinous (90-92)

The 2021 Chassagne-Montrachet La Boudriotte 1er Cru has a little more vigour and energy on the nose compared to the Vergers or Morgeots. The palate is well balanced with lime and orange pith, edgier than other cuvées with orange rind and ginger arming the finish. I can see this maturing nicely in bottle.

Vinous (93)

The 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Caillerets 1er Cru has a crisp, more understated bouquet with more earthy overtones that the domaine's other cuvées. The palate is one of the most terroir-expressive from the domaine, very well defined with a lightly spiced finish. This has a real spring in its step.

Vinous (94)

The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeots 1er Cru, over towards the Santenay side, usually takes longer to ripen. The nose is well balanced with fine delineation, touches of honeysuckle and pressed white flowers. The palate is well balanced with a lovely white peach and white chocolate opening, fine salinity, very poised and tensile towards the finish. Superb.

Burghound (88)

All but invisible wood sits atop the peppery aromas of plum, red and dark currant along with violet hints. I very much like the texture of the middle weight flavors that possess a lovely sense of underlying tension that continues onto the nicely detailed if mildly rustic finale. A quality villages.

Partake in the treasure that is the Guy Amiot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets 2019, a magnificent expression of Burgundy viticulture. This esteemed producer, known for its iconic, biodynamic practices, is located in the renowned Chassagne-Montrachet region where limestone and clay soils foster a perfect vine-growing microclimate. Displaying the highest craftsmanship, Guy Amiot's Chardonnay grapes are hand-harvested and pressed in whole clusters, undergoing fermentation in French oak barrels (partial new) for a layered richness.

Coming from the commendable 2019 vintage, this white wine exudes vibrant, succulent fruit aromas underscored by flinty nuances - a testament to its terroir. On the palate, you'll experience a finely-tuned balance of intense fruit character and refreshing minerality, with a lingering finish that echoes its superior quality. The Guy Amiot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets 2019 is a quintessential Burgundy masterpiece, brilliantly demonstrating the extraordinary potential of its cherished vineyard origin.

James Suckling (94)

Complex aromas of dried apples, apricots, basil and matchstick. Full-bodied with layers of fruit and a fascinating combination of ripe fruit, smoke and lemon grass. Long and very flavorful. Drink or hold.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (91-94)

5 stars. Crisp clear lemon and lime, Excellent energy om the nose. Fresh plum, sweels on the palate, this si excellent, full but not heavy, very well judged oak, and exceptionally long. Top stuff! Tasted: November 2021

Tim Atkin MW (96)

South Africa's Sweet Wine of the Year 2017.

Decanter (98)

An historical wine, Vin de Constance has been re-established in the last few years as one of the world’s finest sweet wines. Dried Muscat grapes are aged for three years before bottling, in French and Hungarian casks with a touch of acacia wood. Citrus, orange zest, rosewater and spice notes leap out of the glass. The palate has a laser-like focus with massive sweetness perfectly balanced by acidity and a mineral finish. As impressive as Château d’Yquem (and considerably better value).

Tim Atkin MW (98)

Increasingly celebrated as one of the great sweet wines of the world, not just the Cape, Vin de Constance is a delight to taste and review. Slightly drier than the 205 release at 165 grams of sugar, it has more in common with the Loire or Tokaji than it does with Sauternes in terms of freshness and structure.

Matthew Jukes (19.5++)

I am informed by the top man at Klein Constantia that the price will be the same as last year’s superb 2017 and all of the likely candidates in the UK are likely to hold stock. It will require a little effort on Google and you will see that a large number of wine merchants will list 2018 Vin de Constance and while the prices swing around like no other wine I know, at £60 or so, for a half litre, it certainly makes sense to me and when you consider the sheer quality of this vintage, it is a bargain for this celestial experience. Stock is likely to arrive in September 2021, but do feel free to register your interest with your preferred wine merchant now. Vintage reports suggest that the build-up to the 2018 harvest brought the highest summer rainfall of the last six years and, combined with some of the coldest night-time temperatures on record, the vines were granted a very long and very slow growing season. These conditions have imbued extreme delicacy of perfume and flavour and also staggering concentration and length in this wine. It also means that the 2018 vintage has otherworldly characteristics and I cannot remember a young vintage tasting so refined and demure. Light bunches and tiny Muscat de Frontignan berries underline just how unusual this vintage was and with a harvest that was a fortnight later than average and crops down by about 15% all of these facts make sense when you taste this ethereal wine. Aged for three years in a combination of 50% new French oak barrels, a small number of acacia barrels, as well as large format foudres, this is both a sensual and also sensitive wine. For a start, the colour is incredibly pale – think a young Sancerre! But the viscosity is amazing when you pour a glass because the liquid moves ever so slightly slower and more deliberately into the glass. The lights come on and the brain fires up immediately and it takes you by surprise just how quickly your olfactory system senses that you are in the presence of greatness. I was in a state of heightened anticipation, long before I raised the glass to my lips and the reward is exquisite. The perfume and palate combine in an astral haze of delight with orange blossom, fig, lemon verbena, wild honey and acacia notes caressing your senses. The texture is super-smooth, incredibly long and unnervingly gentle. It certainly possesses the longest finish I can remember on a Vin de Constance and I have, very fortunately, a tasted huge number of vintages of this wine. If you have never tasted this wine before, please start with this vintage – it will blow your mind. If you have and you are a fan, this is a critical purchase for your collection. I cannot wait to add this wine to my cellar later in the year.

Decanter (98)

Butterscotch, lemon patisserie and peach aromas. Pristine quality to the texture, lively and thrilling, this is a serious, opulent and powerful wine, more on the spiced, nuanced side with aspects of dried herbs, wood scents and bitter lemon and orange with a touch of honeyed lychee. It feels supremely complex and characterful. Sophisticated, layered and balanced with some minerality, a slight graphite edge all of which adds to the whole. It's still extremely youthful but there is real sculpting here, a sense of precision, style and freshness. Well crafted with an extremely long life ahead. A wonder, and one of the best from the estate!

Jancis Robinson (16.5+)

Cask sample. Sweet and round on the nose. Perhaps just a bit sweet and simple? May become more interesting. There’s a cool chewy element on the palate that promises well for the future although at the moment it manifests itself in a note of grapefruit-peel bitterness.

Jancis Robinson (16++)

Cask sample. Just a little fragile on the nose. A bit brutal in terms of astringency. Not a charmer but there is certainly enough acidity and tannin. Hard work at the moment.

Vinous (93-95)

The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vides Bourses 1er Cru presents a complex nose of citrus fruit, popcorn and a touch of grilled walnut, all very well defined and terroir-expressive. The well-balanced palate delivers the same concentration and verve as the Les Champs Gain, and turns quite saline toward the finish, which lingers wonderfully. This is a class act, but try to resist temptation for the first 4–5 years.

Vinous (90-92)

The 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet Vieilles Vignes Rouge comes from low-yielding 80-year-old vines that offered just 30hl/ha in this vintage. It has a lovely nose of dark cherries, raspberry and bergamot, nicely defined and more elegant than the other two reds that I tasted from Damien Colin. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, gentle and unimposing with a mixture of red and black fruit laced with chalk towards the finish. Fine and quite nuanced.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (91-93)

Around 65 year old vines. Deep purple. The bouquet shows an explosion of ripe deep raspberry fruit. Reaching for fruit freshness and a little gourmandise and all that has arrived quite naturally in 2020. I’ll have a magnum of this whenever you want! Seamless and with supple tannins. Tasted: October 2021

Burghound (93)

Sweet Spot Outstanding. Cooler and airier aromas of restrained green fruit, essence of lemon zest and lovely spice nuances give way to rich, concentrated and almost painfully intense medium weight flavors that brim with minerality on the balanced, clean and moderately dry finale. This too could use better depth but Virondot seemingly always ages extremely well.

Vinous (92-94)

The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet Virondot 1er Cru, which unlike the other Premier Crus was taken from barrel, has a lovely bouquet with hazelnut, orange rind, wet granite and just a touch of praline. The palate is very well balanced with an irresistible peachy entry that segues into a gorgeous quince-tinged finish. Often one of the Domaine best offerings, this Virondot is another to add in a succession of great wines from this climat.

Vinous (91-93)

The 2021 Chassagne-Montrachet En Virondot 1er Cru, which was severely affected by frost, has a pretty blackcurrant leaf and candy floss-tinged bouquet, well-defined and seductive even at this early stage. The palate is well balanced with sour lemon and lime on the entry, fine depth, quite spicy and lively with orange rind and quince; touches of peach appear toward the satisfying finish. What survived the onslaught of frost is worth seeking out.

Vinous (89-91)

The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chenevottes 1er Cru sees around 20-25% new oak. The nose offers lemon verbena, pear and a touch of nectarine, unfolding in the glass with neatly integrated oak. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, quite linear and strict with a touch of stem ginger and towards the waxy finish. Pretty and appealing, though I think the ‘19 will have more longevity