Dom. Jean-Marc Pillot
Bourgogne Le Haut des Champs
Chassagne Montrachet
2021

The producer

The cousin of Francois Carillon in Puligny-Montrachet, Jean-Marc has managed his eponymous Pillot estate since 1991, today also joined by his son Antonin. The majority of vineyards are in Chassagne, but there is also a bit of land owned in Puligny, Meursault, and Santenay. Vineyards are currently in conversion to organics and preserving purity and energy in the wines has a high priority, why new oak use across the portfolio is generally kept around 10%. Pillot’s are wines of chiselled structure, in a lean, fresh, balanced, and complex style.

The wine

The 2021 Bourgogne Chardonnay Le Haut des Champs boasts a distinct bouquet, offering delightful nectarine and peach aromas. On the palate, it presents a harmonious balance with a subtle touch of acidity, imparting a saline quality and culminating in a refreshing, bitter lemon finish. Exquisite.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.