Dinner at Home: 1947 Domaine Chanson Montrachet Grand Cru

In recalling his recent time spent in Beaune, journalist William Kelly of Wine Advocate, tells the story of how a splendid meal out featuring the 2013 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet Grand Cru inspired a equally memorable home cooked meal paired with another montrachet: 1947 Domaine Chanson Montrachet Grand Cru. 

“At this point, having finished the chicken and a few mild cheeses with the two reds, the time was right to riposte with my bottle of Chanson’s 1947 Montrachet Grand Cru. I had acquired this a few weeks before from one of my favorite cavistes, and it came from a cellar in the region, so the wine had hardly moved. While many white Burgundies from this hot vintage are a little long in the tooth, the color and level—as well as the high quality of Chanson’s wines in this era—were attractive enough to make me take the plunge. We didn’t regret it. The wine offered up aromas of dried white flowers, preserved citrus, warm bread and praline, with only subtle hints of walnut oil and sotolon pointing to its age, and on the palate, it was full-bodied, satiny and enveloping, with immense power and concentration but no sense of excess, its creamy and textural attack segueing into a deep, multidimensional core, concluding with a long and resonant finish that displayed no signs of fraying. Harmonious and lively, even in this warm vintage, this was a magical bottle that testified to the magic of which Montrachet was capable. As we finished the last glass, I felt that my lunchtime debt to my friends had been atoned.”