I received a phone call yesterday morning from the Australian importer who was prepared to drive 450kms to show me a brace of Burgs that afternoon. What a fine idea and given that he interrupted me reading through 90 CVs, his arrival time was impeccable.
He informed me that Niellon had not been imported into Australia for 20 yrs, and that they had taken steps to address Premox, employing minimal lees stirring and careful management of DO at bottling. DO levels have always to me seemed like a likely factor in the pox.
The wines all showed a fair whack of sulphur and I suspect this too is part of the anti-pox methodology.
The 2017 Michel Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet is an outstanding villages level wine. Bright and taut with cool nashi pear and citric notes, some subtle oak influence and lick of mineralty. Of the premier crus, The Chassagne ‘Clos St Jean’ and Chassagne ‘Chenevottes’ were slightly broader and dense, with a hint of grilled nuts. They were both bright, energetic and detailed. The Clos de la Maltroie, whilst large scaled had a streak of minerality and an extra degree of rocky detail. it still had bags of latent power. The Champ-Gains was my pick of the line up. A spell binding premier cru, shaped like a top flight Corton-Charlemagne, with an endless finish, the rocky detail and pristine fruits reverberating indefinitely.
Funny story I once heard or read—Anne-Claude Leflaive would regularly go ape shit on Niellon when he’d spray his vines. Hers were “biodynamie” and adjacent to his; the runoff was perturbing to her.
Maybe a little off track, but enjoyed a bottle of 2017 Michel Niellon Chevalier at Absinthe in SF towards the end of June. Wow, this was a nice wine, one of the better Chevalier’s I have tasted.
Thanks Kris. I look forward to your thoughts. I did try the Chassagne rouge AC that was quite pretty and tender, very much in teh jubey red fruit spectrum.
Hi Kent
sadly the 03 Chevalier had seen better days, it was very golden and fully developed, the 09 was the real deal
I see you won another award for your restaurant wine list yesterday, well done
MT
Tardy in posting, but tried 3 of the wines amongst other producers including Chavy and Pierre Labet.
Niellon 2017 Chassagne Montrachet, 1er Chassagne Montrachet Champgains and 1er Chassagne Montrachet Clos St. Jean Rouge. Village wine had nice minerality and precision balanced with stone fruits, while 1er was a clear step up with more precision and power and a whiff of freshly rained in cement, while the 1er Rouge was loaded with crunchy red fruits that after 3 hours of air took on more earth and being cherry.
Very enjoyable to drink all 3, errr, I mean taste.
First vintage representing these, full disclosure.
Just happened to get a taste of the Niellon 2017 straight Bourgogne Blanc when i was at the local shop the other day–wow, is this delicious. Would put a number of village wines to shame. These days, I’m pretty unlikely to spend up for a PC or GC white burg and play the premox game, so mostly I’m going to buy the best Bourgognes to consume early. This one fits the bill perfectly.