Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019 - 51

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Top 100 Wineries

Gerard Duplessis

Louis Jadot

FRANCE | BURGUNDY
Lilian Duplessis produced a range of extraordinary Chablis
in 2016, working with organic farming and low-sulfur
winemaking.

FRANCE | BURGUNDY
Long-lived Burgundies form the core of Jadot's vast Côte d'Or
portfolio.

LILIAN
DUPLESSIS

FIFTH-GENERATION VIGNERON LILIAN DUPLESSIS
took over this family domaine from his father,
Gérard, in 2000, after studying and interning in
Chablis. The winery, at a farmhouse built in 1895
over much older cellars, is nestled close to the
Serein River on the Quai de Reugny. The family's
24-acre estate spreads over 20 parcels, including
six premier crus and a holding in the grand cru
Les Clos. Lilian has practiced organic viticulture
since 2010, and gained organic certification from
Ecocert in 2013. He ferments all his wines with
ambient yeasts in stainless-steel tanks, where
they age for a year in underground cellars; he
then puts his premier cru wines in barrels, where
they rest for an additional six months. He holds
onto some wine even longer, releasing it when
he feels it is ready. Duplessis takes a flexible
approach to the use of sulfur in his winemaking,
adding either very little or none at all, depending on the vintage-and production in each vintage can vary widely, especially in recent years:
In 2018, a sulfur-free year, he produced 50,000
bottles compared to 20,000 in 2016. -C.W.

FREDERIC
BARNIER

2016 Chablis Premier Cru Montmains ($54, 98
points) Duplessis farms two parcels in Montmains,
totaling five acres, on the hills across the village from
Chablis's grand crus. The chardonnay vines are close
to 60 years old, and Duplessis believes they produce
the longest-lived of his premier-cru wines. His 2016
shows a lively white-flower-and-apple crispness with
underlying density and heady truffle notes, the most
compelling Chablis we tasted this year and a remarkable value in white Burgundy.

2016 Bouzeron ($26, 92 points) Bright and zesty,
this aligoté has a mix of ripe strawberry scents and
underripe strawberry flavors. That pale greenness
gives the wine some floral tension, keeping it bright
and zesty even as the texture is broad and luscious.
It's a clean and fragrant white to pour with boudin
blanc.
1859
The Kopf
family; PierreHenry Gagey
(CEO)

FOUNDED:

1895

OWNER/
WINEMAKER/
VITICULTURIST:

Lilian Duplessis
ACRES OWNED: 25
CASES PRODUCED:

2016 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos ($105, 95
points) This one-acre parcel is Duplessis' only grand
cru holding. The slope of the cru faces southwest and
provides ample sunlight for the grapes, and Duplessis works the limestone soils to deliver a wine with
the structure to age. After a year in stainless-steel
tanks and nine months in neutral oak, the wine is
just beginning to come into its own, with a core of
intense stone-fruit flavors that enriches the structure
and hints at the complexity that will come with age.

1,667-4,167
ESTATE GROWN:

100%
IMPORTER:

Hand Picked
Selections,
Warrenton, VA

OWNER:

WINEMAKER:

Frédéric Barnier

2016 Pommard ($67, 91 points) This has a potent
black-cherry core, but it takes time to access it.
Instead, the wine delivers a briny green-olive character and a buzz of tannins at first. As it opens, the fruit
tones grow floral, lovely and lasting. This demands
several years of cellar time to show itself more
completely.

VITICULTURIST:

Bruno Dolymnyi
ACRES OWNED:

260
CASES PRODUCED:

2016 Chablis Premier Cru Montée de Tonnerre
($54, 90 points) Soils rich in clay lie under the five
southeast-facing parcels Duplessis farms within Montée de Tonnerre, producing a creamy Chablis with
earthy richness. It will benefit from several years in
the cellar.

LOUIS HENRY DENIS JADOT PURCHASED Beaune's
Clos des Ursules in 1826, founding his négociant
business in 1859. That firm began to take its
contemporary shape in the 1950s, when André
Gagey joined to assist the aging Louis August
Jadot and then stayed on to manage the house
for Jadot's widow. He hired a young enologist, Jacques Lardière, to make the wines and,
after the Kopf family, Jadot's American importers, purchased the firm in 1985, Gagey added
prized vineyards from Domaine Claire Daü and,
in 1996, Moulin-à-Vent's Château des Jacques.
Lardière farmed the vines with his own interpretation of sustainability, harnessing energy,
whether his own or the vines, to produce some
extraordinary, long-lived Burgundies. Today, the
firm is run by Gagey's son, Pierre-Henry, while
Lardière's protégé, Frédéric Barnier, is in charge
of Jadot's Côte d'Or wines, including 280 acres
of premier and grand cru estate vineyards. While
the range of wines is vast, from estate grown as
well as purchased fruit, the best are classic Burgundies, making little concession to early drinking, focusing on freshness and structure rather
than simple fruit. From aligoté to ChambolleMusigny, the wines share a sense of potential
energy. -J.G.

N/A
ESTATE GROWN:

60%
IMPORTER:

Kobrand,
Purchase, NY

2016 Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Fuées
($140, 93 points) Les Fuées sits on the southern
border of Bonnes Mares, on the Chambolle side. This
wine reflects that position in its lithe and silken texture. It has a springtime feel, the flavors transitioning from apple blossoms to early summer berries,
not yet fully expressive, as if waiting to step up from
the pretty red-fruited wine it now is to the beautiful,
open-ended wine it begins to describe as it lengthens
with air.
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