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Appellation · France

Chassagne-Montrachet

The southern half of the Montrachet hill, historically a red-wine village and now overwhelmingly white.

Chassagne-Montrachet AOCcontinentalcool
What to expect in the glass

Dry white with citrus, hazelnut and a firm, slightly broader texture than Puligny. The reds are medium-bodied, earthy and firm, and priced well below the whites.

About Chassagne-Montrachet

Chassagne shares the Montrachet hill with Puligny and makes wine in a slightly broader, nuttier style — between Puligny’s tension and Meursault’s weight.

Until the mid-twentieth century it was principally a red wine village, and a substantial minority of the vineyard is still Pinot Noir. The reds are firm and earthy and considerably cheaper than the whites, which is one of the few remaining bargains in the Côte de Beaune.

The conversion from red to white over two generations is a useful piece of evidence against the idea that a vineyard has one true expression: the same ground, differently planted, now makes a completely different and more highly regarded wine.

What the name means

Legal name
Chassagne-Montrachet AOC
Type
Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée / Protégée (AOC / AOP)
Set by
INAO
Regulates
Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields, minimum ageing.

The delimited area, permitted varieties, maximum yields, minimum alcohol, pruning and training methods, and in many cases minimum ageing. Administered by INAO.

Worth knowing

Shares the Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Crus with Puligny, and holds Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet outright.

Grapes

Wines from here

red

Red Burgundy

Pinot Noir at its most perfumed and site-specific: pale, silky, high in acid, and the reference point for the variety worldwide.

white

White Burgundy

Barrel-fermented Chardonnay from the Côte de Beaune and Mâconnais — the model every serious oaked Chardonnay in the world is measured against.

Rules worth knowing

Confirmed in the EU register

Chassagne-Montrachet is registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), file number PDO-FR-A1021, protected at EU level since 1973.

Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013

Only the rules that change what to expect in the glass or on the label. WineHQ does not reproduce production specifications, and each entry carries the date it was last checked because appellation rules change.

The designation is confirmed above. WineHQ has not read this appellation’s production specification, so it publishes no yields, ageing minima or permitted-variety lists for it — those come from the document linked above, not from a summary of it.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

White Burgundy

Serve at 10–13°C (lightly chilled).

Try with salmon in a cream sauce, halibut or scallops.

Red Burgundy

Serve at 14–16°C (cellar cool).

Try with fillet steak, mushroom pasta or steak with béarnaise.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Puligny-Montrachet — The most precise and mineral-toned of the great white villages, sharing Montrachet itself with its neighbour Chassagne.
  • Saint-Aubin — A side-valley village behind the Montrachet hill, and the best-value white Burgundy on the Côte d’Or.
  • Meursault — The largest white-wine village of the Côte d’Or, and the byword for rich, buttery, hazelnut-scented Chardonnay.

Sources

Sources consulted