Domaine Ballot-Millot Bourgogne Blanc 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

“The kind of Meursault that makes you smile like a Cheshire cat.”

Neal Martin, Vinous

About Domaine Ballot-Millot

Charles Ballot is a passionate, fulfilled and happy man. He is the heir to a very old family estate in Meursault, where he represents the sixteenth generation of operators since 1630. Charles Ballot has enthusiastically taken up the torch of this prestigious wine heritage for twenty years. He was born at the Domaine, he grew up at the Domaine, he lives for the Domaine. Since his earliest childhood, he has breathed enchantingly the woody smell of barrels, the winey scents, the scents of the undergrowth of the family cellars.

His first steps, he took them in the middle of the imposing vats and aligned barrels, the first words he heard belong to the vocabulary of tasting. He fondly remembers his hours spent in the cellar with his father, by the light of the portable lamp; together they washed away the thunderbolts, racked up, oozed out. This is where Charles took his first wine-making and tasting lessons…
No wonder he never wondered about his future …

Respectful of his exceptional heritage and concerned about preserving the environment, Charles Ballot, who is certain to switch to organic farming in the near future, combines traditional family methods with modern viticulture and winemaking techniques. The vines are plowed, chemical weeding is prohibited, and treatments are sparse. Do not abuse the soil, do not stress the vines, listen to it, these are its constant precepts. Each new year is a questioning, a permanent adaptation to specific climatic conditions. It is this versatility of nature that sweeps away the routine and makes the profession of winegrower fascinating; it forces the winegrower to draw inspiration from his artistic soul.

Learn more about Charles Ballot, Domaine Ballot-Millot and winemaking in Meursault in the video below.

In the Vineyard & Winery

The estate is comprised of 10 hectares of vineyards, seven of which are in Meursault proper. The relative vine age is old: Perrières (40+ years), Genevrières (70+ years), Narvaux (45-60 year), etc. Harvest is all done by hand, and fermentations take place with indigenous yeasts. Otherwise, everything in the cellar is done to encourage finesse and delineation over sheer power. The white wines see only 10-20% new oak (max 25%for sone top wines) and are raised without battonage. They are aged 12 months in barrel, and then racked to tank for an additional six months of refinement as is now standard procedure at more and more of the top estates in Côte d’Or. For the reds, given the slightly more rustic line-up of appellations, the wines are all 100% de-stemmed with gentle extractions and relatively short cuvaisons. Here too, new wood use is judicious, with a max of 25-30% new.

The resulting wines tend toward the so-called “Roulot-school” of Meursault, more tensile and racy, as opposed to the fatter, honeyed and nutty style of wines that dominated the landscape 20-30 years ago. There is excellent terroir-delineation, which is exciting given the exceptional range of 1er Crus and lieux-dits that Ballot has in his arsenal. On the red side, it is nice to discover slightly more graceful expressions of these often more “four square” appellations, without compromising the expression of the underlying sites.

The 2019 Vintage at Domaine Ballot-Millot

From Burghound

Charles Ballot directs this old line domaine of 11.5 ha, of which 75% of the production is white. Ballot describes the 2019 vintage as having produced “magnificent wines of freshness and real drive despite elevated alcohol levels. We got killed by the frost in Chassagne but everywhere else we obtained pretty good yields, which is to say around 35 hl/ha for the pinot. I began picking on the 13th of September and the fruit was both very clean and very ripe. For the reds I did almost no punching down and kept the fermentation temperatures from rising above 28°C over the 15 to 21-day cuvaison. The reds are powerful and concentrated yet very well balanced and should age for as long as most people would want to keep them.” Ballot noted that the whites were bottled between November 2020 and January 2021. I would add that Ballot is not exaggerating in calling his 2019s magnificent as a number of his whites are knock-out good.

Where in the World is Domaine Ballot-Millot?

Domaine Ballot-Millot is based in Meursault, where the focus is intensely flavoured Chardonnay. Ballot-Millot also work with select parcels in Vonay and Pommard, producing elegant Pinot Noirs.