Domaine Comtesse de Cherisey Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Hameau de Blagny 2016
(Burgundy, France) - [JM 93] [VM 92]

The lost hamlet of Blagny, up in the hills between Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault in the Côte d’Or in Burgundy, is home to Domaine Comtesse de Chérisey. You may have heard the name “Blagny” before, attached to a bottle of premier cru Meursault-Blagny, or perhaps even a bottle of the increasingly rare Blagny rouge. Monks were the first inhabitants, planting vines in the 14th century. This almost magical, lost-in-time corner of the world boasts a unique microclimate, with a cooler average temperatures and significant diurnal temperature shifts relative to the rest of the Côte de Beaune thanks to its altitude of up to 400 meters. Vigneron Laurent Martelet and his wife, Hélène, create haunting masterpieces from this remote terroir. They bottle their wines under the Comtesse de Chérisey label named in honor of Hélène’s mother, who inherited their vines and passed them on to Hélène and Laurent. Today, their daughter Laurette joins them to continue this long tradition at the domaine.

The de Chérisey premier cru vines are on average very old, reaching nearly a century in age, and encircle the family's ancient cellar in the Hameau de Blagny. The Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Hameau de Blagny is from vines on the south side of Blagny, level with the village, just above Puligny Truffières. It is a wine that combines the power and richness of Meursault with the ethereal finesse of Puligny. Laurent’s Puligny-Montrachet1er Cru Les Chalumaux is from vines just below Blagny, between the aforementioned Truffières and Meursault-Perrières. If you were a Chardonnay vine it wouldn’t be a bad place to put down your roots. The wine is loaded with white limestone and gives a very fine, intensely focused white Burgundy, très Puligny, screaming with minerality. It doesn’t have the renown of its neighbors, but it should. The Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru La Genelotte is from a vineyard just north of Blagny, on the Meursault side of course, high on the slope above the village. The wine is a powerful, classic, long-lived Meursault. The Genelotte vineyard is also a monopole, meaning Laurent and Hélène are sole proprietors. The Martelets draw the best from their pristine terroirs through a strong focus on organic viticulture and sustainable practices, including aging some of their wines in barrels made from oak trees from the forest of Blagny, just above the vineyards.

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