Maison Champy house spotlight
Dimitri Bazas is on camera for Folio Fine Wine, the technical director of Maison Champy since 1999. This 2018 Chassagne-Montrachet Blanc is from that same Beaune cellar.
The market on this bottle
Look up this bottle on Wine-Searcher for live market prices.
2018 Maison Champy Chassagne-Montrachet (Chardonnay) Blanc
Dimitri Bazas's village Chassagne from Burgundy's oldest house, lemon oil and flint, a 2018 you can open at fifty-five dollars.
The 2018 Champy Chassagne-Montrachet is 100 percent Chardonnay from the Cote de Beaune village: lemon oil, green apple, flinty limestone, orange pith, and apricot with a kiss of vanillin oak, now $55.
Village Chassagne from the oldest cellar in Beaune, not a generic white Burgundy slogan
Maison Champy has sat in Beaune since 1720, the oldest negociant still working inside the walls, with fifteenth-century cellars under the old Jacobin convent. Dimitri Bazas, a Greek-born Burgundian, has run the cellar since 1999. He called 2018 extraordinary: red, white, quality, quantity, harvest 5 to 17 September, no disease, volume. This village Chassagne-Montrachet is lemon oil, green apple, and flinty limestone, then orange pith and apricot, a kiss of new-oak vanillin, racy and still generous. This is the bottle that puts Champy's Chassagne on a table at fifty-five dollars.
The house
Edme Champy founded the firm in 1720. It remains the oldest working production site inside Beaune, with a kilometre of fifteenth-century cellars.
The wine
Village Chassagne-Montrachet blanc, 100% Chardonnay. Barrel-raised white Burgundy, lemon oil, flint, apricot.
The cellar
Dimitri Bazas has directed since 1999. Jose Ramalho has been cellar master since 1982. Organic conversion on the estate vines.
The drinker
Lemon and stone first. Serve 50 to 54 F. No long decant. Roast chicken or grilled fish.
Lemon oil and flint, then apple, pith, and apricot
Lemon oil, green apple, and flinty limestone define the perfume. The palate is well balanced with fine detail, pure and racy, then orange pith and apricot. A kiss of new oak as vanillin lends depth and weight to a generous finish. Seven years in glass have already knitted the wood into the stone.
Bazas called 2018 extraordinary across colors: earlier harvest, great weather, no disease, and volume. Whites from that year drink opulent and still have a vibrant structure. This village Chassagne is open now.
Lemon oil, green apple, flint, orange pith, apricot, vanillin.
Medium, racy acidity, barrel raise, generous without going heavy.
Stone and oak length. Serve 50 to 54 F. No long decant.
Village Chardonnay, barrel, a Beaune cellar that has done this for centuries
Champy raises Chassagne as a classic Cote de Beaune white: hand-harvested Chardonnay, barrel ferment and elevage, a kiss of new oak so lemon, flint, and apricot stay in front of toast. Bazas wants the truth of each terroir. Village Chassagne is the limestone speech, not a premier-cru costume.
The house farms about 21 to 29 hectares on the Cote de Beaune, Pernand to Volnay, with organic and HVE work, and buys must for appellations it does not own, including this Chassagne.
Serve 50 to 54 F. A short splash of air, then chicken or fish.
Three centuries under Beaune, still a working cellar
Champy is not a museum. It is the last intramuros production site in Beaune, still raising wine in fifteenth-century vaults.
Edme Champy was a cooper. The house he founded in 1720 still sits at Place de la Halle, caves once tied to the Jacobin convent.
Pierre Beuchet and Advini hold it now. Dimitri Bazas and Jose Ramalho keep the wines in a classical Burgundy register.
The 2018 Chassagne is that register in a generous white year: lemon, flint, apricot, a village wine with real weight.
Roast chicken, then a grilled fish
Village Chassagne loves browned bird and a clean grill. Lemon in the wine does the same work as a squeeze on the plate.
Two plates. One lemon-garlic roast chicken. One grilled fish with herb sauce. Both fit Chassagne acidity and oak.
Serve 50 to 54 F. No long decant. A cool glass keeps lemon oil and flint in front.
Lemon-Garlic Roast Chicken
Browned bird, lemon, and garlic. Village Chassagne's Sunday landing.
Why it works: Acidity cuts the roast. Lemon oil and vanillin echo garlic and pan juices.
View Recipe for lemon-garlic roast chicken (opens in a new tab)
Grilled Fish with Herb Sauce
A simple grilled white fish and herbs. Enough savory weight for barrel-raised Chardonnay.
Why it works: Herbs echo flint and green apple. Citrus in the wine resets the grill.
View Recipe for grilled fish with herb sauce (opens in a new tab)Put this Chassagne-Montrachet in the cart
Dimitri Bazas, Maison Champy since 1720, village Chassagne. Fifty-five dollars against a $125 typical retail.
Put it in the cart. This is the Champy white for a table that wants Chassagne limestone, not a generic oak slogan.
