FONTAINE GAGNARD 2021 MONTRACHET GRAND CRU

TIM ATKIN 96 POINTS: "96pts Tim Atkin MW: "Aromatically reserved when I tasted this in October 2022, the palate was reassuringly more forthcoming. Toasted bread, pastry crust and poached apples brush across the palate with a solid minerality and notable tension tightening up the flavorful, palate-clinging finish. Céline has only a tiny morsel of Le Montrachet, but it is not to be missed if you can find it. This is textbook Montrachet." The 0.8-ha Fontaine-Gagnard plot is in the Chassagne side of the Le Montrachet vineyard where the neighboring vines are shared with illustrious names like the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leflaive and the Domaine des Comtes Lafon. Their style across all their whites, from top to bottom, is one that gives full voice to each facet of terroir. They are precise, they are refined and they are as elegant as they are powerful. Great chardonnay in full flight is a glorious thing and it doesn’t get much better than this. The domaine produces just 1.5 barrels (one smaller new oak barrel and one regular seasoned barrel). This smells of pristine white flowers and light spiced hazelnuts, green tea, grapefruit and tangerine citrus fruits, peaches and nectarines too. It’s a less rocky and flinty wine than the Criots and more a bold expression of pure and powerful fruit. The palate unleashes a huge ball of concentrated white peach and nectarine flavored fruit that is underpinned by glossy porcelain-like acidity; it launches a finish of superb depth and length where the fruit holds long fleshy and seemingly endless. Exhilarating, so balanced as to appear deceptively airy, real x-factor appeal here.