Is Le Montrachet really a notch above the other hyphenated ones?

WINE TALK
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While I realize you are referring to the appellation laws and not the character of the different parts of the vineyard, there are in fact quite significant differences within Montrachet. There are a cluster of small parcels—including Domaine Marc Colin’s—at the top of the slope on the southern side that have quite a different exposition to the northern end. There are lots of murgers up there. I have not explored sufficiently but clearly the mesoclimate varies. And so do the wines.

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I´m not completely sure if it would be illegal to label a Montrachet from the Puligny side “Le Montrachet”, but you certainly can label a M. from Chassagne as “Montrachet” without “Le …” - same as Chambertin versus Ch.Clos de Beze …
I did myself and attended Montrachets-tastings twice where we tasted Ms (a good 50 all together) from both sides against each other, and also Ms from the top-part in Chassagne like Petitjean, Amiot, Fleurot, Colin etc.
While there was no clear difference between the Puligny and Chassagne side recognizable there was a certain difference between the plots high up the hill (more minerally driven, slightly “lighter”) and the wines from lower parts (slightly “fatter”, less minerally …) - but definitely less differences than between M. and the other GCs like Chvalier-M., Batard-M. etc.

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***********I´m not completely sure if it would be illegal to label a Montrachet from the Puligny side “Le Montrachet”, but you certainly can label a M. from Chassagne as “Montrachet” without “Le …” - same as Chambertin versus Ch.Clos de Beze … *******

Interesting… [winner.gif]