Appellations
Grand Cru · Côte de Beaune
Chevalier-Montrachet
Puligny-Montrachet · white · 8
Directly upslope of Montrachet, on the thinnest soil of the family.
Under the vines
Shallow over rock, steep, with very little water-holding capacity.
In the glass
The most vertical and tense of the five; severe young, extraordinarily long-lived.
Why it sits here
The upper-middle-lower sequence with Montrachet and Bâtard is the clearest slope lesson in white Burgundy.
Commonly misread
That tension means thinness. Chevalier is concentrated; the concentration simply arrives as line rather than breadth.
Names worth knowing
Domaine Leflaive, Bouchard Père & Fils, Jadot, d'Auvenay, Niellon