Château de la Maltroye

Jean-Pierre Cornut

Château de la Maltroye is a Burgundian wine estate in Chassagne-Montrachet, boasting a superb 18th century château sitting on top of cellars dating back to the 1400s. Quality has increased greatly since the early 1990s when Jean-Pierre Cornut took over the estate.

Jean-Pierre Cornut, the current wine-grower, has magnificently reinvigorated this domain which now produces some of the best Chassagne-Montrachet on the market. Indeed, the whites made by Jean-Pierre are vibrant, intense, and thrilling. Chassagne naturally lends power and richness to chardonnay, but Cornut is expert in retaining and extracting great tangy acidity and mineral depth to match. 

The red and white grapes have their own ferment rooms and cellars. The reds are fully de-stemmed and undergo a cold maceration before fermentation. The white wines start fermenting in stainless steel and are then transferred to barrels to complete the process. The top white wines may be aged in up to 100 percent new oak barrels.

But a clear sign of his wine-making ability is that he is also one of Chassagne-Montrachet’s leading producer of reds. Pinot Noir was once the dominant variety in Chassagne, but has today retreated to just the core of the most suitable terroir for the grape. His monopole Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Clos du Chateau’ is one of the village’s best reds, and one of the best quality-for-price reds in Burgundy.

2004 Château de la Maltroye, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de la Maltroye
Medium yellow. A wide nose, some higher tones but not quite the amplitude or depth of some 2004 Chassagnes. The palate is rich and just a little softer but with real concentration. A real burst of intensity on the mid-palate though it’s just a little ‘un-knit’ at the moment. I think this is due to the oak treatment – there’s just perceptible coconut on the finish. Needs a little more time to come together, but it’s concentrated, has good acidity and should be rather good.

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