Belland Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Pitois blanc 2020

Roger and Julie Belland are 5th and 6th generation growers in Santenay — their wines are perennial favorites among our readers, offering early drinking and friendly pricetags. Belland’s are always delicious and precocious, but in 2020 they’re even better than usual.

From a two hectare monopole of 50 year-old chardonnay vines, this is one of the southernmost vineyards in Chassagne. The wine is opulent and rich and intense as always, but we found it more refined this year than usual. Belland keeps his oak limited to 30%, and the pedigree of both the terroir and the vintage shine clearly. It is also a complex wine, with the clean chardonnay fruit mixing with more exotic notes, all tied together with beautifully balanced notes of oak.