2017 domaine michel niellon, chevalier-montrachet grand cru
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Why We're Buying
At Vinovest, we offer roughly a dozen wines from Domaine Michel Niellon. None have the name recognition of this chardonnay. Domaine Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru has a striking composition with remarkable depth and persistence. After trying the 2017 vintage, wine critic Allen Meadows called it "a lovely if not exactly classic example of Chevalier."
Critics Scores
Decanter
Niellon's 0.22ha block of Chevalier-Montrachet touches Le Montrachet and was planted in 1962. Small berries have produced a remarkable wine with a winning combination of weight and precision. Yeasty, oatmealy, subtly wooded and complex, this has tangerine, aromatic spice and citrus zest intensity.
Wine Spectator
This intense white offers smoky aromas and flavors, along with citronella, lime blossom, hazelnut, peach and buttered brioche notes. Creamy, featuring an aftertaste that lingers in a subtle, ethereal way.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There are five barrels worth of the 2017 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru, a brilliant wine that unwinds in the glass with a complex bouquet of Meyer lemon, dried white flowers, beeswax, pear, toasted nuts and fresh mint. On the palate, it's full-bodied, satiny and strikingly concentrated, with a bright line of succulent acidity, a textural but weightless profile and a long, lingering finish.
Vinous
Bright light-medium yellow. Aromas of lemon, tangerine and crushed rock are muted by an element of reduction. Silky, suave and intense on the palate; at another level of concentration from the premier crus at this address, with brisk mineral-driven acidity giving the wine a totally different texture and sharper definition than the rest of the Niellon '17s. Thick but not a bit heavy, with its impression of stuffing perfectly leavened by lemony lift. Finishes smooth and subtly long. (Incidentally, as I mentioned last year, Niellon pulled up his old Bâtard-Montrachet vines after the 2015 harvest and plans to replant in 2021, after allowing the parcel to remain fallow for six years.)