Domaine Alain Chavy, Puligny-Montrachet `Les Charmes`

An established name in Puligny-Montrachet, the Chavy family have produced wine here since the 1970s. Alain created his domaine in 2003, after he and his brother decided to split the family domaine and pursue their own paths. Alain’s ten hectares include parcels of some of the most prestigious 1er Crus, some of which, such as ‘Les Clavoillons’, were planted by the Chavy family in the 1950s. The domaine also possesses the deepest underground cellar in Puligny, at a depth of 5.5 metres. Alain has forged a reputation for crafting Puligny-Montrachet which captures the balance of salinity, power and elegance particular to this village.

Alain vinifies traditionally across all his wines, using pneumatic pressing followed by cold settling for 24 hours and fermentation in oak barrels. The Puligny-Montrachet Les Charmes is fermented in oak barrels, 20% of which are new, for 12 months and then spends a further six months in stainless steel before bottling in mid-February. The 1er Crus are treated similarly, but are fermented using 25% new oak to balance the additional weight and richness that results from these vineyards.

The Puligny-Montrachet ‘les Charmes’ comes from five different parcels, planted between the 1950s and 2017, which make up half of this lieu-dit bordering Meursault 1er Cru ‘Les Charmes’. The soils are very stony and lend the wine a particularly rich and saline character. The Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Les Champs Gains’ is located just above ‘Les Folatières’. Sheltered by trees, the soils here are fairly deep with a high limestone content and produce a wine with a riper, stone fruit profile. Alain’s tiny parcel in Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Les Clavoillons’ was planted in 1953, making it one of the domaine’s oldest parcels. The wine displays a powerful mineral concentration and a core of generous citrus fruit. Alain owns 1.4 hectares of the largest Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru, ‘Les Folatières’. His parcel faces east at 300m altitude with a 30% gradient. This combination of altitude, exposure and shallow limestone soils produces a richly layered wine with an intense mineral backbone.