"This is the summit of Vin Jaune" -Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate
It's taken some time, but Macle's Château Chalon has finally gotten its due. Earlier this month, their 2007 Château Chalon received a sterling review from The Wine Advocate.
In the review, Luis Gutierrez wrote: "It has to be among the cheapest great wines in the world."
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We offered Macle's 2007 Château-Chalon this June, but wanted to revisit the wine after Mr. Gutierrez's enthusiastic review.
For us, Macle's Château-Chalon's are some of the best and most moving wines out there. We started selling Macle's Château-Chalon with the 1999 vintage. We had spent a couple of years trying to find the wines. As Gutierrez notes, the Macle's spend no time marketing the wines. And yet, they sell out of the wines without any trouble.
Château Chalon is the Grand Cru of Vin Jaune. It's here that Vin Jaune reaches its pinnacle of refinement and ageworthiness. Curnonsky, a famous 20th Century Parisian gourmet known as the "Prince of Gastronomes," included the wines of Chateau Chalon among "the five great white wines of France," along with Montrachet and Yquem.
Macle's Château Chalon boasts a ridiculous depth of complexity. In The New France, Andrew Jefford comments that Macle’s wines, "...seem to rifle through a repertoire of the natural world as you sniff and sip." That gives you a good sense of what you're dealing with.
It covers a mind-bending range: everything from yellow plum and citrus to pine needles, mushrooms, walnuts and rocky minerality. The 2007 has an especially radiant profile showing more of the citrus and mineral side of this wine.
The Macles print "Vin de Garde" (wine for keeping), in the center of the label. And, for sure, Macle's can age 30, 40 and 50 years without any difficulty. A tasting of 78, 79, 81 and 82 a few years ago only confirmed the breed and importance of these wines.
We've been offering Macle's Chateau Chalon since the 1999 vintage and we're happy to see the domaine's reputation growing. The only issue is that there's never enough of their Chateau Chalon to go around. With only 4ha in the appellation and very low yields, normally in the 24hl/ha range, demand far overwhelms supply.
Please give us your maximum order, and we'll allocate accordingly. To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits