Burgundy 2021 En Primeur: Domaine Jean Pascal
Domaine Jean Pascal's Bourgogne Blanc, Auxey-Duresses and Puligny-Montrachet 'Les Enseignères' offer some of the best quality-to-value of any of the burgundies we offer en primeur. Quite rightly, the wines all but sell out each year. With the 2021 vintage, you will need to be even quicker than usual.
The chardonnay vines of Puligny-Montrachet were among those hit hardest by frost in 2021 and the volumes at Jean Pascal were down by 50% relative to a normal year. When we visited, Alexandra was practically in hiding from the stream of longstanding French private clients who call at the domaine each year, reluctant to tell them that there is almost no wine for them to buy!
The 2021 tasted from cask showed the remarkably steady, consistent hand we have grown to love in previous vintages at this domaine. Whilst the style is distinct from recent vintages, we see no change in the level of quality. In general, the wines are more linear and focused than in recent vintages, a style completely in keeping with the domaine's terroirs.
The 2021 Bourgogne Côte d'Or once again has the richness and intensity of a baby Puligny-Montrachet, whilst the Auxey-Duresses is, as usual, the most complete and compact white burgundy one could hope for. The Puligny 'Les Enseignères' will become a textbook exposition of this terroir with some age.
All three wines were in a reductive phase on the day we tasted them, suppressing some of the aromas (normal with cask samples) but the fruit purity and precision were unmistakable. We have no doubt the aromatic intensity will start to shine through after a few months in bottle. In fact, we think these are likely to be at their peak for drinking before the 2020s, so if you have any of the previous vintage in your cellar, we humbly suggest you need to order the '21s, to precede them!
Please let us know as soon as possible before they are all gone.
Offered en primeur, landing Autumn 2023.
Producer Profile
Domaine Jean Pascal, Puligny-Montrachet
The white burgundies from Domaine Jean Pascal in Puligny-Montrachet have become a benchmark for us of what white burgundy should offer, with their amazing fruit purity and a chiselled ("cisele"), focused character, even in the recent run of warmer vintages.
The domaine is just 500 metres from Puligny's village square, home to Domaine Leflaive and Hôtel Le Montrachet, but compared with these starry names it could not be more down to earth, a 'paysanne' domaine (in relative terms). Nevertheless, Pascal's Bourgogne Chardonnay and Puligny's are a staple of Le Montrachet's list...quite a recommendation.
The domaine was started by Joseph Pascal in the early 1900s when he arrived in the village and began working in the vineyards for Domaine Leflaive. Gradually, he acquired his own vines. In the 1950s, with low demand for fine white burgundy, the family also started a vine nursery ("pépinière") which now produces half a million vine rootstocks each year. Now run by Jean's grandson Yann and his wife Alexandra, the domaine's 15 hectares of vineyards are spread over four towns (Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, Volnay and Auxey-Duresses).
Perhaps being so firmly rooted in viticulture gives the Pascals their skill at making wines with such brilliant fruit character. Many domaines produce wines with more layered complexity (at many times the price) but few surpass them when it comes to purity.
