2010 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers 1er Cru

Tasted blind at Farr Vintners Kumeu/White Burgundy tasting. The 2010 Chassagne Montrachet les Vergers has a very strict and reserved bouquet with citrus fruit, dried flowers and oyster shell scents that are well defined, more Puligny-like than Chassagne. This has certainly "slimmed down" since its more corpulent youth, but in a positive way. The palate is shrill on the entry with a sharp, almost piercing level of acidity. There is plenty of tension here but it is a Burgundy that needs to be partnered with something on the dinner table coupled with a powerful marine influence from start to finish, a virile saline element loitering on the aftertaste. This is a superb Chassagne-Montrachet - cerebral!

Good bright straw-yellow. White peach, ripe pear and lemon on the nose. Suave and nicely concentrated, with a sexy sweetness to the peach and pear fruit; not a mineral style. Tactile, generous wine with good back-end lemony citricity; in contrast to a couple of the foregoing samples, this comes off as brisk and youthful rather than edgy. I'd give this a year or two in the cellar and then enjoy it over the next four or five.

The 2010 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers is another pretty, delicate wine laced with expressive floral and mineral notes. Medium in body, the Vergers impresses for its understated personality and cool, incisive minerality. It could benefit from another year or two in bottle, if not more. The intensely saline finish leaves a lasting impression.