Domaine Blain-Gagnard is tucked into a little corner of Chassagne-Montrachet, surrounded by other offshoots of the Gagnard family. The domaine was formed in 1980 when Jean-Marc Blain – who hails from Sancerre – married Claudine Gagnard, of the Domaine Gagnard-Delagrange family – a name that’s certainly been here since the Revolution – see a schematic below! Jean-Marc and Claudine met while studying oenology together at the University of Dijon.
The domaine has about 8 hectares of vines with 4 villages represented. By surface area the domaine is about 60% white wine, so nearer 70% by the volume of wine that is produced. There are 4 premier crus and three grand crus – including Criots, Bâtard and Le Montrachet.
Jean-Marc employs great intricacy in his winemaking: subtle tweaks to the process such as his discerning selection of coopers and the wood they use, and mixing wines from vines of different ages helps create a series of excellent wines. Jean-Marc uses around 15% new barrels for his premier cru and lesser wines, while the grand crus are afforded 30% new Alliers oak.
93 Points Allen Meadows
There is just enough reduction to reduce the expressiveness and blur a bit of the nuance to what are clearly ripe and floral-suffused aromas. The rich, delicious and palate coating large-scaled flavors possess impressive density while delivering excellent length on the compact and youthfully austere bitter lemon-inflected finish that is even firmer. Unlike the Criots that could reasonably be approached after 5-ish or so years, this is going to require between 12 and 15 years of patience if you wish to experience it at its peak.