2023 Domaine Coffinet-Duvernay Bâtard Montrachet Grand Cru

Notes

If you want to understand what "location, location, location" means in Burgundy, stand in Philippe Duvernay’s parcel of Blanchot Dessus and look up the slope: the wall you’re staring at is Montrachet. Coffinet-Duvernay is a small Chassagne family domaine, run from a nineteenth-century hunting lodge in the center of the village, that Laura Coffinet and her husband Philippe took over from her parents in 1989, with their son Bastien in the cellar since 2012. The holdings are tiny and absurdly well placed. The Bâtard-Montrachet is a scrap of 13 ares, roughly a third of an acre. The domaine owns parcels in Blanchot Dessus and Dent de Chien, two of the only premier crus whose vines run right up to the edge of Montrachet, which is why Philippe calls them his "Pied de Montrachet." Even the village Blanchot Dessous sits shoulder to shoulder next to Criots-Bâtard. The rest of the roughly seven hectares splits between Chassagne whites and a few quality reds from the lower slopes below the village. Philippe’s winemaking is old-fashioned and quiet: barrel fermentation, about a third new oak, fifteen months of élevage, and almost no bâtonnage, because he’d rather the wines stay tense and clean than get fat on the lees. Don't miss these stunners!