Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard, Chassagne-Montrachet

Background

This domaine was created in 1985, resulting from the marriage of Richard Fontaine (pictured here with his eldest daughter Céline) and Jacques Gagnard’s oldest daughter Laurence. One of the finest and most well established names in the village of Chassagne-Montrachet.

Richard Fontaine (originally an aircraft mechanic in the French airforce) is now master of very fine Domaine stretching across a super range of Chassagne premier crus, plus Criots, Bâtard and Montrachet itself. He makes wonderfully fresh, juicy, racy and mineral-laden white wines, including the Grand Cru Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet, where he is in the fortunate position of owning the largest piece of what is the smallest Grand Cru in the Côte de Beaune.

Size:12 hectares.

Soil type:	marl, clay, chalk, silt, gravel, stones, red soils.
Vine age:	vines planted between 1930 and 1989.

Viticultural and vinification methods
Within the vineyard, they choose to employ ‘viticulture raisonnée’ – ‘sustainable agriculture’, taking great care to manage how and the level to which agriculture impacts on the environment without damaging profitability of the enterprise.

Richard likes to buy his own oak trees and age them (2 years) in his garden; this way he can be sure of ageing of the wood prior to coopering (coopers are not always honest over this question) as well as being sure of the source of the tree (trees from the heart of the forest where they grow more slowly are best).

In terms of barrel ageing, the white wines spend 12 months, and the red wines, 14-18 months. Both white and red see 30% new oak.

Wines

Chassagne-Montrachet

Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru la Grande Montagne

Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru la Maltroie

Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru la Boudriotte

Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru la Romanée

Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

Montrachet Grand Cru