LeDomduVin: Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2020

Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard 

Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2020

Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard is in the village of Chassagne-Montrachet. It was established in 1985 by Laurence Gagnard and her husband, Richard Fontaine, following Laurence's inheritance of a portion of Domaine Gagnard-Delagrange.

Céline Fontaine (Laurence and Richard's daughter) joined her family estate in 2007 and now runs the Domaine, which encompasses 12 hectares of vineyards, mainly in Chassagne-Montrachet, across several Premiers Crus and a few plots in Volnay and Pommard.

They also hold holdings in the prestigious Grands Crus vineyards of Le Montrachet, Bâtard-Montrachet, and Criots-Batard-Montrachet and a few plots classified as Bourgogne rouge and Bourgogne blanc.

Their wine range covers 22 different appellations. Roughly two-thirds of production is devoted to white wine (around Chassagne-Montrachet) and one-third to red (Volnay and Pommard).

In the vineyard, they use sustainable agriculture methods to respect and be as close as possible to nature. They have adopted a less interventionist approach in the cellar, allowing the wines to reach their full potential and reveal each terroir's best expressions and characteristics.

They use natural indigenous yeasts. Aging takes place in oak barrels. The percentage of new oak varies from 15-20% for the Village appellations and 30-40% for the Premiers Crus and Grands Crus. The wines usually spend 12 months in oak for the whites and up to 18 months for the reds. Light fining and filtration before bottling.

Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard is still "under the radar" and thus produces delicate yet complex and refined, classic-style Burgundian wines at very reasonable prices while only making a tiny amount. For example, this Batard-Montrachet hailed from only 0.3 hectares of vines out of the 11.24 hectares of this Grand Cru vineyard's surface.

Fontaine-Gagnard Batard-Montrachet 2020

Beyond its pale yellow color, the nose was light, fresh, elegant, mineral, zesty, and citrusy. At first, slightly restrained, the palate slowly opened, revealing a fresh, dry, mineral texture, good density, lots of lemony flavors, sharp acidity, and lightly toasted, oaky nuances. Nice, even if a bit light to my palate for a Batard-Montrachet. I would have loved to see a bit more substance and depth. Yet, it might benefit from a few more years in the cellar. 

Cheers! Santé! 

Dom

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