Domaine Bachelet-Ramonet
The Cabinet keeps certain houses closely. This is the first of the letters that introduce them.
Bachelet-Ramonet is a family domaine in Chassagne-Montrachet, in the Côte de Beaune, kept in the old Saint-Jean quarter of the village. Its name records the meeting of two Chassagne families — the Bachelets and a branch of the Ramonets — and it should not be mistaken for the better-known Domaine Ramonet, with which it shares a root and little else. Since 1984 the house has been in the hands of Alain and Marie-Paule Bonnefoy, who farm the parcels and make the wines on the estate.
The vineyards
The holdings run from village Chassagne-Montrachet up through a line of premiers crus — Caillerets, Les Grandes Ruchottes, La Grande Montagne and La Romanée in white; Morgeot and the Clos de la Boudriotte in red — to two grand crus on the Puligny border, Bâtard-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. There is a white Puligny-Montrachet from Les Enseignères, and, beneath it all, a Bourgogne Côte d'Or that is the house in plain clothes. The greater part is Chardonnay; a share is Pinot Noir.
In the vines and the cellar
The work is traditional and unshowy. Farming is by lutte raisonnée, certified for environmental value; the grand crus are picked by hand; the whites are raised in barrel for a little over a year, with a measured hand on new oak and rather more of it on the grandest wines. Everything is vinified and bottled at the domaine — the whites in late winter, the reds a month behind them.
The style
These are classical Chassagne whites: fresh, mineral, built on the fruit rather than the wood, and made to be kept. The reds ask for less and repay attention with finesse. It is not a cult address, which is rather the point — grand-cru credentials without a cult price, and a consistency that rewards those who follow the house from one vintage to the next.
The holdings, in brief
- Grand cru — Bâtard-Montrachet; Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet (white)
- Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru — Les Caillerets; Les Grandes Ruchottes; La Grande Montagne; La Romanée (white)
- Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru — Morgeot; Clos de la Boudriotte (red)
- Village — Chassagne-Montrachet (white and red); Puligny-Montrachet Les Enseignères (white)
- Régional — Bourgogne Côte d'Or
The lots
See the Bachelet-Ramonet lots currently in the Cabinet: the current release. The grand crus are made in small quantity and do not stay long.
Producer before appellation, always. — The Cabinet
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